Validation of the Australian Midwifery Standards Assessment Tool (AMSAT): A tool to assess midwifery competence

Background

There is no current validated clinical assessment tool to measure the attainment of midwifery student competence in the midwifery practice setting. The lack of a valid assessment tool has led to a proliferation of tools and inconsistency in assessment of, and feedback on student learning.

Varieties of political support in emerging democracies: A cross-national analysis

Political support is a multidimensional construct encompassing evaluations of political leaders and institutions (specific support) as well as adherence to basic regime principles (diffuse support). Scholars have traditionally assumed that diffuse and specific support are driven by different forces and evolve largely independently. Prior empirical work, however, has struggled to untangle the two support dimensions and focused predominantly on cross-national differences, ignoring their dynamics. This paper develops an analytical and empirical approach to examine the levels and dynamic interplay of both support dimensions and estimate their determinants, applying it to South American democracies between 1996 and 2015. Contrary to received wisdom, we show that both dimensions are quite volatile and closely linked in this region. In particular, negative economic shocks not only undermine support for government actors, but also fuel democratic disenchantment. Nonetheless, while regime support is rather fickle in South America, it can be ultimately resistant to performance fluctuations.     

数字阅读泛化对大学生学习能力影响分析

随着时代的进步,科技日新月异地发展以及网络的普及化,我们迎来了全新的数字化时代,人们的工作学习生活已经网络化了。阅读作为人们获取知识最基本的手段,强烈地受到了网络新媒体的冲击。在高校中,数字阅读已经成为大学生获取信息、进行交流的主要方式,并呈现出泛化的倾向,这也冲击着大学生的学习能力。文章在观察大学生数字化阅读现状的基础上,分析其利与弊,积极探讨如何更好地利用微信、微博、QQ等信息传播手段,规避弊端,提升学习效果,增强理性阅读能力,丰富自身知识结构。     

加强实践平台建设培养创新能力素质

从大学生创新创业能力素质培养过程中存在的主要问题,探讨了实践教学平台建设的重要性,并从教育理念更新、实践平台定位、培养计划制定、各种关系协调等方面提出了相应的培养策略,全面推进大学生创新创业能力素质培养,进而提升高校人才培养质量。     

河北省新型城镇化现状分析与发展对策

河北省城镇化化经历了缓慢发展与快速增长两个阶段,虽取得了较大成就,但整体上仍较为落后,其主要问题在于城镇化进程滞后、质量不高、资源环境问题突出、土地城镇化与人口城镇化矛盾凸显、城乡差距依然较大,所以新型城镇化是河北省现代化的必然选择,这就要求加快新型“四化”发展;强化产业支撑,优化城乡空间布局和形态;加快农业转移人口市民化,促进新型城镇化的内涵式发展;提高城镇规划建设与管理水平,弥补公共服务短板;统筹城乡一体化发展,创新体制机制。     

二代流动人口——对新生代流动人口的新划分与新界定

"新生代流动人口"或"新生代农民工"的提法将随着时间的推移越来越不符合现实情况的需要,本文在全面梳理国外二代移民研究成果的基础上,提出"二代流动人口"的概念和划分方式,通过与现有的"新生代流动人口"从理论上进行对比论证了"二代流动人口"群体在未来流动人口研究中的重要意义,最后为人口普查和各项有关流动人口的专项调查提供了数据采集方法上的建议,并提出了未来一些相关的研究议题.     

康定锅庄文化遗产价值新阐释

The understanding of the traditional research of Kangding Guozhuo mainly covers four aspects:1 ) It is widely believed in the academic world that the Guozhuang ( meaning singing and dancing in a circle ) of Kangding was a unique product which combined politics, economics and culture together. 2) It was a specific business form based on the family unit, fulfilling multiple func￣tions such as an inn, a shed, a commodity inter￣mediary, an administrative office, a commodity transformation point, and a banking establishment. And it was also a place for cultural exchange be￣tween the Tibetans and the Han . 3 ) The formation of Guozhuang culture establishes a new element in the culture of the Tibetan-Yi corridor. 4 ) Zheng Shaoxiong mentions that the Guozhuangzhu ( the Guozhuang host ) had played an intermediary role in assisting the Tibetan businessmen to sell or pur￣chase goods - this helped to maintain the trade relations between the Han and Tibetans ( or their communication) . This kind of ingenious institu￣tional arrangement was a historical practice in keeping the balance of the relationship between different cultural communities, such as the Qing court, Tusi ( native officials ) and the Guozhuang host of Kangding. It reflects the wisdom in ethnic interactions, and can be borrowed in present ethnic regional autonomous system.
The above mentioned understanding is a result of study from the perspective of history, ethnology or economics. Although Zheng Shaoxiong’s re￣search was born from the old mindset, and pro￣posed the new value of Guozhuang cultural mecha￣nism, there is still a lack of research on this cul￣ture from such comprehensive perspectives as ur￣ban history, cultural anthropology, and economic anthropology. Thus it cannot fully reveal the fea￣ture and value of Kangding Guozhuang, a complex cultural phenomenon.
Based on existing data, past research, and fieldwork on the oral history of Kangding Guozhuang conducted in August 2013 , this article gives some new interpretations to the features of Guozhuang culture from an interdisciplinary per￣spective as follows:
1 ) The forever “48 Guozhuang” are a Kang￣ding urban memory, which displays the common cultural psychology of regarding Kangding as an important trade city of the Han and Tibetans; and Guozhuang carries a folk cultural memory of more than 200 years. After the gaitu guiliu policy ( re￣placement of native officials with centrally appoint￣ed officials) in the late Qing period, the number of newly appeared Guozhuang even reached 60 to 70 .“Although each of them had its own courtyard, and people also called them Guozhuang, they were still quite different from the 48 Guozhuang in the minds of the Kangding people”. This not only in￣dicates that the 48 Guozhuang within the orthodox system were deeply rooted in the hearts of the local people, but also reflects that Guozhuang were re￣garded as the most proper carrier for the communi￣cation between the Han and Tibetan during the late Qing period, otherwise so many Guozhuang court￣yards would not have appeared in history.
2 ) From the name to its architectural form, or function, a Guozhuang was influenced by the Han culture, however, it still had strong Tibetan char￣acteristics. Actually it could be regarded as a min￣iature of local culture of Kangding. Every Guozhuang had its own Tibetan name and Chinese name. The architectural style of the Guozhuang was actually different from traditional multiple -level blockhouse. There was always a courrtyard, and it was larger than that of Han. The vast court￣yard was not only a space for the Tibetan business￣man to cook food and boil tea, but also a space for organizing their entertainment activities, such as singing and dancing in a circle. You Tai, a minis￣ter of the Qing dynasty in Tibetan areas, recorded a grand dancing party organized by the local Tusi to welcome his arrival, which reflected the significant position of the Guozhuang in cultural activities. The upper-class of the Kham area, including Tusi and the Guozhuang host, tried to build a close re￣lationship with both Tibetan and Han in all means, including the title, kinship relation or customs, and successfully built up a central zone on which both sides can be understood. It was just due to the special geographical location and cultural tradi￣tion that made the reconstruction of a cross cultural buffer zone possible.
3 ) The managers of the Guozhuang were mainly the hostesses ( Ajia Kaba in Tibetan lan￣guage) , and this also reflected a kind of feminism in Kham culture. The tradition of the Dong nv guo ( East Kingdom of Women ) enabled the women to run their business in and out of the family. When the tea trade started, the Guozhuang host had to spend much of their energy on providing service to the Tusi, so the Guozhuang hostess took the re￣sponsibility of managing the business of the Guozhuang. Ajia normally controlled the initiative of negotiation in the Han-Tibetan trade, and they played the role of interpreters in the negotiation. There were many live -in son -in -laws in the family of the Guozhuang and this kind of marriage was even more popular in the period from the late Qing dynasty to the Republican era.
If we conduct an analysis of the value of Kangding Guozhuang from multiple dimensions, we would notice that the existence of the non-market interpersonal model in this institution, on some certain degree, had solved the problem of the lack of social cohesion resulting from marketization. From this angle, the value of Guozhuang culture in the improvement of the economic institutions of the market cannot be ignored.
This fieldwork also reflects the significant and comprehensive influence of the Guozhuang cultural heritage of Kangding. When viewed from this an￣gle, its value is incredible. According to the data collected from the fieldwork, all the people, inclu￣ding officials, scholars, businessman and ordinary people, are aware that the Guozhuang is a cultural heritage which has a high and comprehensive val￣ue. If the relevant government bodies could in￣clude it into the scope of heritage protection, and build it into a cultural space of intangible cultural heritage, it will have a much higher heritage val￣ue , and play an important role both in the econom￣ic development and construction of harmonious eth￣nic relationships.
The Kangding Guozhuang also played a role in the deconstruction of the Han - Tibetan social structure - this kind of value can not only be in￣troduced to the present world and influence the fu￣ture world, but also can be seen as a hub which connects the “ancient” and “modern” Han -Ti￣betan relations. Traditionally, there was a structur￣al rule in the communications between the Han and Tibetan, namely that “the Han and Tibetans are somewhat separated from each other ”, however, the Guozhuang model in Kangding deconstructed this Han-Tibetan rule. This was closely related to elements such as social composition, ways of life, marriage, family, kinship, and religious customs. The disappearance of Guozhuang also has its own causes, for instance, the absence of inheritors and failure in operation of this system. However, this article proposes that it is mainly influenced by the social reforms in the historical process. Hence, that is the reason why modern enterprises which re￣tain certain connotations of the Guozhuang could re-appear in the Kang area. In the survey, we no￣tice that some enterprises have already made efforts in this regard. In summary, Kangding Guozhuang had creatively formed a security institution with a more humanized nature, and played an important role in the alleviation of social tensions in ethnic areas. Contemporary society, composed as it is of people with multi-ethnic backgrounds, still needs this kind of “deconstruction”.     

Open innovation and quality management: the moderating role of interorganisational IT infrastructure and complementary learning styles

This study seeks to explain the influence of quality management on the relationship between open innovation and performance. We propose that, to contribute to open innovation performance, an organisation’s commitment to quality improvement must rely on the combination of its own resources and capabilities and its open innovation partners’ resources and capabilities. Specifically, we examine the moderating role of an interorganisational IT infrastructure and the complementarity of learning styles among an organisation committed to quality improvement and its supply network. Using data from 270 managers of European firms, our results show that the negative effects of quality management on open innovation performance can be overcome by complementing the organisation’s learning style with that of its open innovation partner, particularly, its supply network, and, most importantly, obtaining information technologies compatible with those of its supply network members.     

Gezi Park and EuroMaidan: social movements at the borders

Both Turkey and Ukraine are located at the external borders of the European Union (EU), and are seen as important partners of the EU, especially in terms of economic relations and strategic partnership. Both countries experienced en masse protest events in 2013: the Gezi Park protests and EuroMaidan, starting, respectively, in May 2013 and November 2013. Although these protests started initially for different reasons – the brutal eviction of a sit-in organized for protecting the trees in Taksim Gezi Park and the Ukrainian government's abandonment of EU trade agreement talks – and seem spatially, temporally and ideologically separate, they both include claims related to a “more just and transparent system”. Such claims are not purely political and are closely linked to a social dimension, especially in terms of local and European space-making. This article aims to understand the importance of Gezi Park and EuroMaidan within the framework of new social movements in terms of space-making and the perception of human rights, democracy, justice, identitarian politics and consensual social relations as Euro-concepts or European ideals.