Vaginal births after caesarean: What does Google think about it?

AimVaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC) is a relatively safe alternative to repeat caesarean birth in the proper context. This important decision to undergo an elective caesarean versus VBAC is ultimately a decision of the mother. The purpose of our study was to assess the quality of online information in relation to VBAC collected using the most common search engine: Google.MethodsThe 10 most common hit sites for the keywords “VBAC” and “Vaginal birth after caesarean” were evaluated using the search engine Google. The quality of websites was rated based on the Silberg scale for accountability, the modified Abbott's criteria for presentation and the SMOG index for readability. The content of each website was compared to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) guidelines for VBAC.Findings13 out of 20 identified websites met the adequate criteria for accountability, with 85% of the websites indicating authorship. 11 websites were deemed aesthetically agreeable. The target audience, assessed by the readability score, was notably above the non-medical population with an average SMOG index score of 14.75. Only half of the websites contained recommendations, as detailed by the SOGC guidelines.ConclusionAlmost all sites target a higher academic level, making it beyond the comprehension of the general population. Woman friendly web-assessment tools should be provided to enable pregnant women to take an active role in their decision making.     

Social identities and political cleavages: the role of political context

Summary. Using a novel method, the paper investigates the influence of social group identities on attitudes and on voting in a variety of political contexts. Examining the major regions of Britain, Canada and the USA, we find considerable national and regional diversity in the nature of social cleavages. For example, social class and race had widely different effects across societies, but within societies their effects on attitudes and on voting were very similar. However, despite that, age and religion had a similar effect on attitudes across societies; the effects on voting varied considerably. The significant within-country differences underline the importance of using region, rather than country, as the unit of analysis. More importantly, these results highlight the role of political context, especially competing cleavages and the structure of party competition, in the establishment of politically relevant social cleavages.     

我国城市社区建设的几个理论和实践问题

在实践中 ,城市社区建设的实际操作有诸多现象和现实问题应引起我们足够的重视。“社区建设”概念的界定、政府在城市社区建设中的职能定位、居民参与在城市社区建设中的地位、社区工作者队伍建设等几个主要方面的问题则需要我们加以认真的研究和探讨。     

Human immunodeficiency virus risk: is it possible to dissuade people from having unsafe sex?

Summary. The cumulative number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections worldwide has reached 60 million in little over 30 years. HIV continues to spread despite a detailed understanding of the manner in which it spreads and measures which can prevent spread. Some governments have been highly successful in containing the spread of HIV through blood products and from mother to child and among injecting drug users. Lack of political will, lack of resources or challenges to widely accepted scientific evidence have held back similar interventions in other countries. It has proved much more difficult to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV in both high and low income countries. A wide range of strategies has been identified but it remains unclear which strategies deserve priority and what methods of promoting them have the greatest effect. There is ample evidence that awareness of HIV and changes in sexual behaviour have occurred widely but the penetration of information remains poor in some vulnerable groups especially adolescents and women in poorer countries. Further obstacles face those who have information about the risk. The subordinate position of women and a desire for large families are important obstacles to condom negotiation and use. Urbanization, poverty, conflict and declining public services all exacerbate unsafe sexual behaviour. We argue that so-called 'structural' interventions directed at these wider contexts of unsafe behaviour merit greater attention. Such approaches have the added benefit of being less susceptible to 'risk compensation' which has the potential to undermine strategies directed at reducing the transmission efficiency of HIV.     

城市社区少数民族居民利益的演变

改革开放以来城市社区民族利益不断演变,有其内外部因素,特别是对国家政策转变,即从“直接利益”分配到“利益机会”分配的转变中,对城市社区少数民族居民利益的影响。城市化的推进,城市的多民族化进程也在加快,城市里的民族成份和少数民族人口的不断增多,各城市社区传统的族群团体被频繁流动的人口冲击,打破了原来的人际交往圈,尤其是打破了原有的民族社区,这个过程涉及到各民族成员切身利益的变化,直接影响到民族关系的好坏。具体到民族地区城市社区的少数民族居民的利益演变研究,这是一个更加微观层面上的问题。     

驻村干部参与乡村治理的柔性嵌入机制

柔性嵌入是驻村干部通过沟通、对话、协商参与乡村治理的管理实践。柔性嵌入式治理并非单纯的行政制度吸纳与整合,而是包括文化嵌入、认知嵌入、关系嵌入在内的多维柔性嵌入的互动与治理的过程。从辽宁省X县的治理实践来看,驻村干部参与乡村治理仍受根深蒂固的刚性治理思维、运转不畅的民主协商机制、薄弱的乡村社会资本、匮乏的村庄公共精神等现实因素掣肘。需要从转变刚性治理观念、运用情感治理技术、完善基层协商机制、挖掘乡村内生资源、培育村庄公共精神等层面进一步激活柔性嵌入机制,持续提升驻村干部参与乡村治理效能。     

Culture and Organization: The Case of Transmanche-Link

The relationship between culture and organization has often been discussed, but rarely explored directly. This paper implements a cultural values instrument taken from Hofstede together with a behavioural instrument derived from Van de Ven to matched samples of British and French managers working on the Channel Tunnel project. The results largely replicate the findings of Hofstede regarding cultural values, but do not support the predicted implications for behaviour. In essence, the British were found to be more bureaucratic and more team-oriented than their French counterparts, who tended to be more fonceur and competitive. This indicates that the relationship between culture and behaviour might be more complicated than research to date suggests.     

From victims to winners: strategies of negotiation among relocated residents in demolition-compensation events in local China

It has been well documented by researchers that in China’s continual quest for modernisation and urbanisation, many urban and rural residents became displaced and portrayed as victims. A more important question however needs to be explored: do evicted residents learn from others to develop strategies to protect themselves from becoming victims? Through in-depth interviews, primary data collection, documentary research, this study has confirmed that for some evicted residents in Southern China’s urban fringes, when their land was appropriated by local government and developers and they were offered resettlement elsewhere, they did not behave passively to accept the terms of compensation dictated. Instead, they actively learnt from other dwellers who were evicted earlier to become well-organised, resourceful, and sophisticated negotiators in bargaining for their compensation. The group of rural residents proved that they could do better than the evicted urban residents, especially in terms of compensation-negotiation.