The experiences of privately practising midwives in Australia who have been reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency: A qualitative study

BackgroundIn Australia the majority of homebirths are attended by privately practising midwives (PPMs). In recent years PPMs have been increasingly reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) mostly by other health professionals.Purposeto explore the experiences of PPMs in Australia who have been reported to the AHPRA.MethodsA qualitative interpretive approach, employing in-depth interviews with eight PPMs was undertaken and analysed using thematic analysis. A feminist theoretical framework was used to underpin the research.ResultsThe majority of reports made to AHPRA occurred when midwives supported women who chose care considered outside the recommended Australian College of Midwives (ACM) Consultation and Referral Guidelines. During data analysis an overarching theme emerged, “Caught between women and the system”, which described the participants’ feelings of working as a PPM in Australia. There were six themes and several sub-themes: The suppression of midwifery, A flawed system, Lack of support, Devastation on so many levels, Making changes in the aftermath and Walking a tight rope forever. The findings from this study reveal that midwives who are under investigation suffer from emotional and psychological distress. Understanding the effects of the process of investigation is important to improve the quality of professional and personal support available to PPMs who are reported to AHPRA and to streamline processes.ConclusionIt is becoming increasingly difficult for PPMs to support the wishes and needs of individual women and also meet the requirements of the regulators, as well as the increasingly risk averse health service.     

Cognitive Fit: A Theory-Based Analysis of the Graphs Versus Tables Literature*

A considerable amount of research has been conducted over a long period of time into the effects of graphical and tabular representations on decision-making performance. To date, however, the literature appears to have arrived at few conclusions with regard to the performance of the two representations. This paper addresses these issues by presenting a theory, based on information processing theory, to explain under what circumstances one representation outperforms the other. The fundamental aspects of the theory are: (1) although graphical and tabular representations may contain the same information, they present that information in fundamentally different ways; graphical representations emphasize spatial information, while tables emphasize symbolic information; (2) tasks can be divided into two types, spatial and symbolic, based on the type of information that facilitates their solution; (3) performance on a task will be enhanced when there is a cognitive fit (match) between the information emphasized in the representation type and that required by the task type; that is, when graphs support spatial tasks and when tables support symbolic tasks; (4) the processes or strategies problem solvers use are the crucial elements of cognitive fit since they provide the link between representation and task; the processes identified here are perceptual and analytical; (5) so long as there is a complete fit of representation, processes, and task type, each representation will lead to both quicker and more accurate problem solving. The theory is validated by its success in explaining the results of published studies that examine the performance of graphical and tabular representations in decision making.     

Coherent mortality forecasting by the weighted multilevel functional principal component approach

In human mortality modelling, if a population consists of several subpopulations it can be desirable to model their mortality rates simultaneously while taking into account the heterogeneity among them. The mortality forecasting methods tend to result in divergent forecasts for subpopulations when independence is assumed. However, under closely related social, economic and biological backgrounds, mortality patterns of these subpopulations are expected to be non-divergent in the future. In this article, we propose a new method for coherent modelling and forecasting of mortality rates for multiple subpopulations, in the sense of nondivergent life expectancy among subpopulations. The mortality rates of subpopulations are treated as multilevel functional data and a weighted multilevel functional principal component (wMFPCA) approach is proposed to model and forecast them. The proposed model is applied to sex-specific data for nine developed countries, and the results show that, in terms of overall forecasting accuracy, the model outperforms the independent model and the Product-Ratio model as well as the unweighted multilevel functional principal component approach.     

DEVIL'S ADVOCACY AND DIALECTICAL INQUIRY EFFECTS ON PREDICTION PERFORMANCE: TASK INVOLVEMENT AS A MEDIATING VARIABLE

Critics of previous laboratory experiments comparing devil's advocacy (DA) to dialectical inquiry (DI) have suggested that these experiments produced misleading results because (1) they used subjects who had low levels of task involvement and (2) the DI treatment used was confusing to subjects and required further explanation to be useful. The present study examines the effects of four inquiry methods—expert (E), DA, DI, and DI with explanatory statement (DI+)—on subjects' performance at a financial prediction task. Results show that DA, DI, and DI + were superior to E when the state of the world differed significantly from assumptions underlying the expert's plan. For subjects with high task involvement, DI and DI + were more effective than E and DA. The results support some of the criticisms of previous laboratory research and suggest that future research on these decision aids should include task involvement as a factor.     

和平对我们意味着什么？

从普世的层面来说,和平指的是人类作为一个共同体之内部的和谐相处关系状态。在比较具体的层面,可以将和平放置在中国历史、传统、文化,以及现实处境的场域中来做充分注意文化差异性的思考。和平是一种宁静的状态,是一切公共关系、秩序的最高原则。真正、持久的和平必须建立在一种珍视和平价值的文化基础上。人类必须建设一种浓郁的和平文化,使之成为比竞争文化更为基础性的自觉。世界和平是世界人民的诉求,必须由世界人民通过对话、交流、融合建设起来。和平是所有人类的根本需求,是最值得珍视的人类社会状态,保持和平,需要建设和平的文化,也需要国际秩序保障机制的改革建设。     

资本外逃的成因:文献评述及政策含义

国外理论界对于资本外逃成因诠释的文献,主要有资产组合理论、人力资本理论、政党轮流执政理论、公共地悲剧理论和政治风险理论,这些理论从不同角度诠释了资本外逃产生的原因及其内在机制,从一个侧面体现了经济学研究的方法论,从早期的文字阐述到模型的构建,从早期的假说、推测到近期的计量分析验证的演进轨迹。     

先秦儒家天人观发展述论

天人问题是中国古代思想中的核心问题,先秦儒家,尽管“天”的含义在各个阶段、各个思想家那里有所不同,但在天人观上,从孔子、孟子到荀子,总体特点都是以人为立足点,强调在人的能动基础上达成与天的合一；同时,从孔子、孟子到荀子,先秦儒家对天的认识也明显地呈现出宗教主宰意味乃至道德意味下降,人文意味增强的趋势,这也正是社会进步、人类的主体意识觉醒的自然结果,是人类思想文化演进的必然趋势。     

“天人合一”与高校德育的审美选择

高校德育审美探索是当前高校德育改革的趋势.中国"天人合一"传统美学思想以"和谐"为核心,在人生境界上强调物我交融,在人际关系上强调以"和"为贵.以"天人合一"的中国古代美学思想为依据进行德育审美探索,通过审美主体的内化和外化以实现道德人格.     

试论文化创意产业化背景下的艺术设计教育发展方向

创意产业的发展无不得力于创意人才的教育与培养,大批量创意人才的教育与培养将会是我国未来创意产业获得大发展的前提。这对于培养文化创意产业人才的艺术设计教育事业来说是机遇,也是挑战。本文将从文化创意产业化的背景形势,来思考我国艺术设计教育的现状和我国艺术设计教育应面临的转变。     

孟子性善论思想探要

文章从三个方面探讨了孟子的性善论。认为孟子的“性善”之“性”,是指人之为人的特性──人内在具有的能动主体性;孟子性善论具有内在连续的两个层面：向善表明人的本体自觉,为善表明人的工夫自觉;孟子性善论是对孔子“仁”的思想的继承和发展．