Conflicting contexts: Midwives’ interpretation of childbirth through photo elicitation

IntroductionThis study seeks to explore midwives’ perceptions about childbirth and in particular their beliefs about normality and risk. In the current climate of increasing interventions during labour, it is important to understand the thought processes that impact on midwifery care in order to examine whether these beliefs influence midwifery clinical decision-making.Method12 Midwives who worked in a variety of metropolitan hospitals in Sydney, Australia were interviewed about how they care for women during labour. The study utilised an inductive qualitative design using photo elicitation during the interview process.ResultsSix themes emerged from the data that clearly indicated midwives felt challenged by working in a system dominated by an obstetric model of care that undermined midwifery autonomy in maintaining normal birth. These themes were: desiring normal, scanning the environment, constructing the context, navigating the way, relinquishing desire and reflecting on reality. Most midwives felt they were unable to practice in the manner they were philosophically aligned to, that is, promoting normal birth, as the medical model restricted their practice.DiscussionThe polarised views of childbirth held by midwives and obstetricians do little to enhance normal birth outcomes. Midwives in this study expressed frustration that they were unable to practice midwifery in a way that reflected their belief in normal birth. This, they cite is a result of the oppressive obstetric model prevalent in maternity care facilities in Sydney and the over use of technological interventions during childbirth.     

Testing for Stochastic Dominance Efficiency

We consider consistent tests for stochastic dominance efficiency at any order of a given portfolio with respect to all possible portfolios constructed from a set of assets. We justify block bootstrap approaches to achieve valid inference in a time series setting. The test statistics are computed using linear and mixed integer programming formulations. Monte Carlo results show that the bootstrap procedure performs well in finite samples. The empirical application reveals that the Fama and French market portfolio is first and second-order stochastic dominance efficient, although it is mean–variance inefficient.     

Pooling multivariate data under W, LR and LM tests

Two independent random samples are drawn from two multivariate normal populations with mean vectors μ1 and μ2 and a common variance-covariance matrix Σ. Ahmed and Saleh (1990) considered preliminary test maximum likelihood estimator (PMLTE) for estimating μ1 based on the Hotelling's T _N ², when it is suspected that μ1=μ2. In this paper, the PTMLE based on the Wald (W), Likelihood Ratio (LR) and Lagrangian Multiplier (LM) tests are considered. Using the quadratic risk function, the conditions of superiority of the proposed estimator for departure parameter are derived. A max-min rule for the size of the preliminary test of significance is presented. It is demonstrated that the PTMLE based on W test produces the highest minimum guaranteed efficiencies compared to UMLE among the three test procedures.     

Establishing dominance between strategies with interval judgments of state probabilities

In decision-making under uncertainty, a decision-maker is required to specify, possibly with the help of decision analysts, point estimates of the probabilities of uncertain events. In this setting, it is often difficult to obtain very precise measurements of the decision-maker׳s probabilities on the states of nature particularly when little information is available to evaluate probabilities, available information is not specific enough, or we have to model the conflict case where several information sources are available.In this paper, imprecise probabilities are considered for representing the decision-maker׳s perception or past experience about the states of nature, to be specific, interval probabilities, which can be further categorized as (a) intervals of individual probabilities, (b) intervals of probability differences, and (c) intervals of ratio probabilities. We present a heuristic approach to modeling a wider range of types of probabilities as well as three types of interval probabilities. In particular, the intervals of ratio probabilities, which are widely used in the uncertain AHP context, are analyzed to find extreme points by the use of change of variables, not to mention the first two types of interval probabilities. Finally, we examine how these extreme points can be used to determine an ordering or partial ordering of the expected values of strategies.     

Optimum Critical Value for Pre-Test Estimator

In this paper, methods are proposed in finding the robust design in both Taguchi and Standard setups when a signal factor is present. The robust design is a set of level combinations of control factors so that the effect of controllable noise factors on response is minimum. Both univariate and multivariate methods are used in finding the influential noise factors for the determination of robust designs.     

信息市场由隐性到显性转变的社会原因

本文概述了信息市场由隐性到显性，由萌芽时期到独立发展时期不同的历史阶段的发展过程及社会原因。     

An Ethical Interpretation of the Nash Choice Rule

This paper provides an ethical intepretation of the Nash choice rule. In a setting in which (cardinal) utilities are interpersonally comparable, this procedure is characterised by an impartiality requirement and by the assumption that choices are not responsive to the agents' relative ability to convert resources into utility.     

The Effects of Process and Outcome Similarity on Users' Evaluations of Decision Aids*

Decision aids (DA) used in online shopping contexts have been shown to improve users' product choices. Given that previous research (e.g., Byrne & Griffitt, 1973 ) has demonstrated the positive effects of perceived similarity on an individual's evaluation of others, this study investigates the effects of users' perceived similarity with a DA on their evaluations of that DA. More specifically, we investigate the effect of users' perceptions of the similarity between their own decision process and that followed by the DA to arrive at a recommendation (decision process similarity), as well as the similarity between the recommendations made by the DA and users' initial choices (outcome similarity), on their evaluations of the DA's usefulness and trustworthiness. The results of this study show that perceived process similarity exerts positive and significant effects on users' perceptions of the DA's usefulness and trustworthiness. However, the effects of perceived outcome similarity on trust are completely mediated by perceived process similarity. It is also observed that the level of the user's domain knowledge moderates the effects of perceived decision process similarity on both perceived usefulness and trustworthiness. These results have implications for DA design. It is important that designers consider the process by which users make decisions for themselves and align the DA's decision process with those of the user's, especially for the novice user. The full mediation of the effect of outcome similarity on trust by process similarity highlights how a similar decision process can mitigate some of the negative effects of outcome dissimilarity.     

社会工作介入家庭暴力的优势分析

家庭暴力作为一个严重的社会问题越来越受到了国际社会和各国政府的广泛关注,我国妇联、司法等部门都对防治家庭暴力的有效措施进行了探索,社会工作作为专业化解决社会问题的应用社会科学也为家庭暴力的防治提供了新的视角。社会工作介入家庭暴力的优势具体包括：价值、理念优势;方法、技术优势;组织、机构优势与专业人员的优势。