Women’s experiences of decision-making and attitudes in relation to induction of labour: A survey study

BackgroundRates of induction of labour have been increasing globally to up to one in three pregnancies in many high-income countries. Although guidelines around induction, and strength of the underlying evidence, vary considerably by indication, shared decision-making is increasingly recognised as key. The aim of this study was to identify women’s mode of birth preferences and experiences of shared decision-making for induction of labour.MethodAn antenatal survey of women booked for an induction at eight Sydney hospitals was conducted. A bespoke questionnaire was created assessing women’s demographics, indication for induction, pregnancy model of care, initial birth preferences, and their experience of the decision-making process.ResultsOf 189 survey respondents (58% nulliparous), major reported reasons for induction included prolonged pregnancy (38%), diabetes (25%), and suspected fetal growth restriction (8%). Most respondents (72%) had hoped to labour spontaneously. Major findings included 19% of women not feeling like they had a choice about induction of labour, 26% not feeling adequately informed (or uncertain if informed), 17% not being given alternatives, and 30% not receiving any written information on induction of labour. Qualitative responses highlight a desire of women to be more actively involved in decision-making.ConclusionA substantial minority of women did not feel adequately informed or prepared, and indicated they were not given alternatives to induction. Suggested improvements include for face-to-face discussions to be supplemented with written information, and for shared decision-making interventions, such as the introduction of decision aids and training, to be implemented and evaluated.     

Analysis of a two incongruent arrivals and services M/G/1 queue with random feedback

A queuing system with two incongruent arrivals and services is considered. Two kinds of customers enter the system by Poisson process and the service times are assumed to have general distribution. After first kind service completion, it may feedback to repeat the first service, leave the system or go to give second service. The same policy is applied for the other kind of customer. All stochastic processes involved in this system are independent. We derive the probability generating function for each kind and for the system that yield the performance measures. Some numerical approaches examined the validity of the results.     

Child protection and fathering where there is domestic violence: Contradictions and consequences

Children live in different contexts of protection and vulnerability when exposed to domestic violence. The negative impacts for many children are consistent and widely acknowledged. However, the implication that this requires men who use violence to address their fathering has been slower to emerge. This article draws from 69 in‐depth qualitative interviews with men, women, and workers across four men's behaviour change programmes in rural Victoria, Australia. Particular attention is given to men's attitudes to their fathering and the formal and informal consequences they experienced as a result of their violence and its impact on their fathering. Although most men came to recognize that their violence impacted their children, they failed to make the connection that the involvement of statutory child protection services in their lives was a direct consequence of their abusive behaviour. This article explores this disconnection by fathers who use violence, their attitude to the involvement of statutory child protection services, and identifies the implications for social work practitioners in addressing this issue.     

Ghosted Images: Old Lesbians on Screen

Screen images of old lesbians combine modes of representing female gender, lesbian sexuality, and old age, all of which contain layers of otherness within a hetero-patriarchal and youth-centered society. Analyzing a range of films, from independent to mainstream cinema, this article explores how the ghosted lesbian paradigm intersects with narratives of aging as decline in representations of lesbian characters who are over the age of sixty. The spectral matters of illness, death, mourning, and widowhood inevitably culminate in an unhappy ending. Removed from a lesbian community context, intergenerational continuity vanishes and the old lesbian emerges as the cultural other.     

Influence diagnostics for the structural sharpe model under normal/independent distributions

A method is proposed in this paper to assess the local influence of minor perturbations for the Sharpe model when the normal distribution is replaced by normal/independent (NI) distributions. The family of NI distributions is an attractive class of symmetric heavy-tailed densities that includes as special cases the normal, t-Student, slash, and the contaminated normal distributions. Since the returns of the market are not observable, the statistical analysis is carried out in the context of an errors-in-variables model. An influence analysis for detecting influential observations (atypical returns) is developed to investigate the sensitivity of the maximum likelihood estimators. Diagnostic measures are obtained based on the conditional expectation of the complete-data log-likelihood function. The results are illustrated by using a set of shares of companies traded in the Chilean stock market.     

A new extension of the FGM copula for negative association

In this paper we introduced a single parameter, absolutely continuous and radially symmetric bivariate extension of the Farlie-Gumbel-Morgenstern (FGM) family of copulas. Specifically, this extension measures the higher negative dependencies than most FGM extensions available in literature. Closed-form formulas for distribution, quantile, density, conditional distribution, regression, Spearman's rho, Kendall's tau, and Gini's gamma are obtained. In addition, a formula for random variate generations is presented in closed-form to facilitate simulation studies. We conduct both paired and multiple comparisons with Frank, Gaussian, and Plackett copulas to investigate the performance based on Vuong's test. Furthermore, the new copula is compared with Frank, Gaussian, and Plackett copulas using both Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Cramér-von Mises type test statistics. Finally, a bivariate dataset is analyzed to compare and illustrate the flexibility of the new copula for negative dependence.     

Child protection social workers' constructions of children and childhood: An integrative review

Social workers' constructions of children and childhood are central to how professionals interact with children and support their needs. The aim of this integrative review was to provide a comprehensive portrayal of child protection social workers' constructions of children and childhood. We analysed and synthesized 35 empirical studies with samples of social workers in the child protection domain where issues regarding the child or the child's situation were the study focus. The findings show that children and youth are constructed as a generalized group viewed in light of their parents. We see a fragmented and context‐free child produced by causal shortcuts strongly informed by specific and, at times, simplified and biased psychological knowledge. Moreover, we identify constructions of the child in need of protection and thereby position children as objects for intervention, separating that from children as subjects in their own rights. Although the participatory child is visible in the data material, the actual practice of involving children seems arbitrary.     

从龙母传说看西江文化

龙母文化是西江古民俗文化核心部分。本文阐述了龙母文化及其历史背景,并对西江乃至整个岭南地区发生了巨大的文化福射作用,产生了深远的影响。     

大学生创业中地方政府角色定位缺失与对策

大学生创业是地方政府工作中需要重视的一个环节,地方政府对大学生创业成功起着至关重要的作用。但是从目前的情况来看,一些地方政府并没有顾及到自身在大学生创业中的角色,定位缺失的情况还是普遍存在的,具体表现为创业政策制定者角色缺位;创业协调监督者角色错位;创业服务者角色模糊等等。这就要求地方政府必须要认识到自身工作的重要性,做好补位措施,为大学生创业提供更好的条件,这样国内大学生创业才能够获得更好的发展。     

北京市行政-立法关系研究——基于北京市人大立法过程的视角

基于北京市人大常委会门户网站,通过收集第十三、十四届北京市人大在立法过程各个阶段的实证数据,分析了北京市人大和政府在立法过程中各自所发挥的作用,从而探究北京市行政-立法关系.研究发现,北京市人大在现实运行中尚未实现其主导功能,具体表现为:"官员"代表和兼职代表比例高、"行政部门化"趋向、程序性手段效用缺失、立法解释权虚置.但是,与此同时实证数据也显示北京市近两届人大正通过调整代表结构、提前介入、强化实质性审议等手段提升立法自主性,推动人大制度与时俱进.