Universal Procreation Rights and Future Generations

2023-02-06
It is often acknowledged that public policies can constrain people's procreative opportunities, in some cases even infringing their procreative rights. However, a topic that is not often discussed is how the procreative choices of one generation can affect the procreative opportunities of later generations. In this article, we argue that the demographic fact that childbearing above the replacement fertility level is eventually unsustainable supports two constraints on universal procreation rights: a compossibility constraint and an egalitarian constraint. We explore the implications of these two constraints and suggest that there are reasons to think of procreative opportunity as a finite resource that can be distributed more or less equally across generations. We also briefly discuss possible ways of meeting demands of intergenerational justice with respect to procreative opportunity.
 

Midwives’ ability during third stage of childbirth to estimate postpartum haemorrhage

2022-12-01
Objective: Correctly assessing the amount of blood loss is crucial in order to adequately treat postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) at an early stage and diminish any related symptoms and/or complications. The aim of our study is to analyse correctness in visually estimated blood loss during labour and to measure the differences between subjectively measured and weighted blood losses (ml).

Design: Cross-sectional study

Setting: A Swedish maternity unit with 6000 annual births Participants: Midwives employed at a big maternity unit at a hospital in northern Stockholm, Sweden. Intervention: Midwives assisting 192 vaginal births were asked to visually estimate the blood loss from the assisted delivery. Coasters and sanitary pads were weighed following the birth. We analysed if there were any differences between subjective measured blood loss (ml) and weighted blood loss. These two methods were also compared to quantify concordance between estimated blood volume and the actual volume.

Findings: The number of overestimates of blood loss was 45.3 % (n=87) with an average of 72.9 ml; the number of underestimates was 49.4 % (n=95) with an average of 73.8 ml. Exact correct estimations of blood loss were done in 5.2 % of the cases (n=10). The largest overestimation of a postpartum bleeding was by 520 ml; the largest underestimation was by 745 ml.

Conclusion: There was both underestimation and overestimation of blood loss. We found small but significant overestimates in PPH < 300 ml (16 ml). In PPH > 300 ml, there was a small but not significant underestimates (34 ml). Based upon our findings, we conclude that it is reasonable to start weighing blood loss when it exceeds 300 ml. © 2022 The Authors

A Response Function That Maps Associative Strengths to Probabilities

2022-07-11
Bridging associative and normative theories of animal learning, I show that an associative system can behave as if performing probabilistic inference by using the function f(V) = 1 − e−cV to transform associative strengths (V) into response probabilities. For example, using this function, an associative system can respond normatively to a compound stimulus AB, given previous separate experiences with the components A and B. The CR probability formulae that result from the proposed function have a normative interpretation in terms of statistical decision theory. The formulae also suggest a normative interpretation of stimulus generalization as a heuristic to infer whether different stimuli are likely to convey redundant or independent information about reinforcement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Fading family lines- women and men without children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren in 19th, 20th and 21st Century Northern Sweden

2022-07-01
We studied to what extent family lines die out over the course of 122 years based on Swedish population-level data. Our data included demographic and socioeconomic information for four generations in the Skellefteå region of northern Sweden from 1885 to 2007. The first generation in our sample consisted of men and women born between 1885 and 1899 (N = 5850), and we observed their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We found that 48% of the first generation did not have any living descendants (great-grandchildren) by 2007. The risk of a family line dying out within the four-generational framework was highest among those who had relatively low fertility in the first generation. Mortality during reproductive years was also a leading reason why individuals in the first generation ended up with a greater risk of not leaving descendants. We identified socioeconomic differences: both the highest-status and the lowest-status occupational groups saw an increased risk of not leaving any descendants. Almost all lineages that made it to the third generation also made it to the fourth generation.

Episodes of liberalization in autocracies : a new approach to quantitatively studying democratization

2022-06-29
This paper introduces a new approach to the quantitative study of democratization. Building on the comparative case-study and large-N literature, it outlines an episode approach that identifies the discrete beginning of a period of political liberalization, traces its progression, and classifies episodes as successful versus different types of failing outcomes, thus avoiding potentially fallacious assumptions of unit homogeneity. We provide a description and analysis of all 383 liberalization episodes from 1900 to 2019, offering new insights on democratic “waves”. We also demonstrate the value of this approach by showing that while several established covariates are valuable for predicting the ultimate outcomes, none explain the onset of a period of liberalization.

Xenophobia among radical and mainstream right-wing party voters : prevalence, correlates and influence on party support

2022-05-20
Considering the current political relevance of anti-immigration sentiments, we examined preference to avoid interacting with immigrants - conceptualized here as a manifestation of xenophobia - among radical (Sweden Democrats, Sverigedemokraterna, N = 2216) and mainstream (Conservative Party, Moderaterna, N = 634) right-wing voters in Sweden. Correlates of xenophobia did not differ between the voter groups or compared to other populations in previous research, suggesting that increased societal focus on immigration has not altered the correlation patterns. Intended Sweden Democrat (vs. Conservative Party) voting correlated with Right-Wing Authoritarianism, institutional distrust, less right-leaning socioeconomic attitudes (in both low- and high-xenophobia subgroups), sexist attitudes (low-xenophobia subgroup), male gender and younger age (high-xenophobia subgroup). In both voter groups, respondents with higher xenophobia expressed on average more sympathy for the Sweden Democrats, perhaps indicating a larger potential voter base. We discuss the interplay of xenophobia and contemporary voting behaviours, and the concept of xenophobia in relation to anti-immigration attitudes.