Community boards, control of community or control by community : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Resource and Environmental Planning, Massey University

Over the last two decades, there as has been an emergence in western local government systems of small statutory bodies, Parish Councils and Community Councils in Great Britain, Kommeslrands in Sweden, Community Councils in Canada and Community Boards in New Zealand. It is argued, utilising the work of Coser (1956) and Dahrendorf (1959), that these structures appeared due to attempts to mute the growing conflict over the deficiencies of local government systems. Case studies looking at the western local government system and the situation in Great Britain and New Zealand will outline more particularly what these factors were and how small statutory bodies emerged in response to their existence. It is argued that because the small statutory bodies were intended to be placatory mechanisms rather than true decision making authorities, their roles and responsibilities were left deliberately vague. It was left to each local parent authority to decide what emphasis to place on the boards' roles and responsibilities, what attention to pay to them, or what status to accord them. It is argued, that this structure led to conflict between the small statutory bodies who felt that they had been given control over their areas, and their parent authorities who took the approach that the bodies were largely advisory bodies and that control still rested with the local authority itself. Thus, because there was not agreement over the rules of the game as Dahrendorf argued was necessary between the groups involved in the bodies' operation, conflict ensued. From case studies of the operation of small statutory bodies in Great Britain and New Zealand it is confirmed that problems have arisen due to conflict about roles and responsibilities (external factors) but it is noted that conflict has also arisen from unrelated factors such as party politics, demands for efficiency and cost effectiveness etc (internal factors). It will be argued however that, community boards are a useful part of the New Zealand local government, and that the conflicts that exist can be remedied. The closing chapter outlines some suggestions as to how this can be achieved

Factors associated with educational aspirations among adolescents: cues to counteract socioeconomic differences?

Background: Our study aims to follow this effort and to explore the association between health, socioeconomic background, school-related factors, social support and adolescents' sense of coherence and educational aspirations among adolescents from different educational tracks and to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the role of educational aspirations in the social reproduction of health inequalities. We expect that socioeconomic background will contribute to the development of educational aspirations, but this association will be modified by available social and individual resources, which may be particularly favourable for the group of adolescents who are on lower educational tracks, since for them such resources may lead to gaining a higher educational level. Methods: We collected data on the socioeconomic background (mother's and father's education and employment status, doubts about affordability of future study), school-related factors (school atmosphere, school conditions, attitudes towards school), perceived social support, sense of coherence (manageability, comprehensibility, meaningfulness) and the self-rated health of a national sample of Slovak adolescents (n = 1992, 53.5% females, mean age 16.9 years). We assessed the association of these factors with educational aspirations, overall and by educational tracks (grammar schools, specialised secondary schools, vocational schools). Results: We found statistically significant associations with educational aspirations for the factors parental educational level, father's unemployment, doubts about the affordability of future study, school atmosphere, attitude towards school, social support from the father and a sense of coherence. Social support from the mother and friends was not associated with educational aspiration, nor was self-rated health. Besides affinity towards school, the determinants of educational aspirations differed among adolescents on different educational tracks. Educational aspirations of grammar school students were associated with father's education, while the aspirations of their peers on lower educational tracks had a stronger association with mother's education and perceived social support from father and friends. Moreover, a sense of coherence contributes to the reporting of educational aspiration by students on different educational tracks. Conclusions: Characteristics of the school environment, the family and the individual adolescent are all associated with the level of educational aspiration, but in a different way for different educational tracks. Interventions aimed at reducing socioeconomic inequalities in health via the educational system should, therefore, take this variation and the rather pivotal role of the father into account

Online Information on Dysmenorrhea: An Evaluation of Readability, Credibility, Quality, and Usability

Aims and objectives To evaluate online information on dysmenorrhoea, including readability, credibility, quality and usability. Background Menstrual pain impacts 45%–95% of women of reproductive age globally and is the leading cause of school and work absences among women. Women often seek online information on dysmenorrhoea; however, little is known about the information quality. Design This was a descriptive study to evaluate online information on dysmenorrhoea. Methods We imitated search strategies of the general public. Specifically, we employed the three most popular search engines worldwide—Google, Yahoo and Bing—and used lay search terms, “period pain” and “menstrual cramps.” We screened 60 web pages. Following removal of duplicates and irrelevant web pages, 25 met the eligibility criteria. Two team members independently evaluated the included web pages using standardised tools. Readability was evaluated with the Flesch–Kincaid Reading Ease and Flesch–Kincaid Grade formulas; credibility, quality and usability were evaluated with established tools. We followed the STROBE checklist for reporting this study. Results For readability, the mean Flesch–Kincaid level was 10th grade. For credibility, 8% of web pages referenced scientific literature and 28% stated the author's name and qualifications. For quality, no web page employed user‐driven content production; 8% of web pages referenced evidence‐based guidelines, 32% of web pages had accurate content, and 4% of web pages recommended shared decision‐making. Most web pages were interactive and included nontextual information. Some nontextual information was inaccurate. Conclusion Online information on dysmenorrhoea has generally low readability, mixed credibility and variable quality. Relevance to clinical practice Strategies to improve health information on dysmenorrhoea include avoiding complex terms, incorporating visual aids, presenting evidence‐based information and developing a decision aid to support shared decision‐making. Healthcare providers should be aware of the problematic health information that individuals are exposed to and provide education about how to navigate online health information

Interpreting extreme climate impacts from large ensemble simulations — are they unseen or unrealistic?

Large-ensemble climate model simulations can provide deeper understanding of the characteristics and causes of extreme events than historical observations, due to their larger sample size. However, adequate evaluation of simulated 'unseen' events that are more extreme than those seen in historical records is complicated by observational uncertainties and natural variability. Consequently, conventional evaluation and correction methods cannot determine whether simulations outside observed variability are correct for the right physical reasons. Here, we introduce a three-step procedure to assess the realism of simulated extreme events based on the model properties (step 1), statistical features (step 2), and physical credibility of the extreme events (step 3). We illustrate these steps for a 2000 year Amazon monthly flood ensemble simulated by the global climate model EC-Earth and global hydrological model PCR-GLOBWB. EC-Earth and PCR-GLOBWB are adequate for large-scale catchments like the Amazon, and have simulated 'unseen' monthly floods far outside observed variability. We find that the realism of these simulations cannot be statistically explained. For example, there could be legitimate discrepancies between simulations and observations resulting from infrequent temporal compounding of multiple flood peaks, rarely seen in observations. Physical credibility checks are crucial to assessing their realism and show that the unseen Amazon monthly floods were generated by an unrealistic bias correction of precipitation. We conclude that there is high sensitivity of simulations outside observed variability to the bias correction method, and that physical credibility checks are crucial to understanding what is driving the simulated extreme events. Understanding the driving mechanisms of unseen events may guide future research by uncovering key climate model deficiencies. They may also play a vital role in helping decision makers to anticipate unseen impacts by detecting plausible drivers

Middleborns disadvantaged? testing birth-order effects on fitness in pre-industrial finns

Parental investment is a limited resource for which offspring compete in order to increase their own survival and reproductive success. However, parents might be selected to influence the outcome of sibling competition through differential investment. While evidence for this is widespread in egg-laying species, whether or not this may also be the case in viviparous species is more difficult to determine. We use pre-industrial Finns as our model system and an equal investment model as our null hypothesis, which predicts that (all else being equal) middleborns should be disadvantaged through competition. We found no overall evidence to suggest that middleborns in a family are disadvantaged in terms of their survival, age at first reproduction or lifetime reproductive success. However, when considering birth-order only among same-sexed siblings, first-, middle-and lastborn sons significantly differed in the number of offspring they were able to rear to adulthood, although there was no similar effect among females. Middleborn sons appeared to produce significantly less offspring than first-or lastborn sons, but they did not significantly differ from lastborn sons in the number of offspring reared to adulthood. Our results thus show that taking sex differences into account is important when modelling birth-order effects. We found clear evidence of firstborn sons being advantaged over other sons in the family, and over firstborn daughters. Therefore, our results suggest that parents invest differentially in their offspring in order to both preferentially favour particular offspring or reduce offspring inequalities arising from sibling competition

Rofecoxib for dysmenorrhoea: meta-analysis using individual patient data

BACKGROUND: Individual patient meta-analysis to determine the analgesic efficacy and adverse effects of single-dose rofecoxib in primary dysmenorrhoea. METHODS: Individual patient information was available from three randomised, double blind, placebo and active controlled trials of rofecoxib. Data were combined through meta-analysis. Number-needed-to-treat (NNT) for at least 50% pain relief and the proportion of patients who had taken rescue medication over 12 hours were calculated. Information was collected on adverse effects. RESULTS: For single-dose rofecoxib 50 mg compared with placebo, the NNTs (with 95% CI) for at least 50% pain relief were 3.2 (2.4 to 4.5) at six, 3.1 (2.4 to 9.0) at eight, and 3.7 (2.8 to 5.6) at 12 hours. For naproxen sodium 550 mg they were 3.1 (2.4 to 4.4) at six, 3.0 (2.3 to 4.2) at eight, and 3.8 (2.7 to 6.1) at 12 hours. The proportion of patients who needed rescue medication within 12 hours was 27% with rofecoxib 50 mg, 29% with naproxen sodium 550 mg, and 50% with placebo. In the single-dose trial, the proportion of patients reporting any adverse effect was 8% (4/49) with rofecoxib 50 mg, 12% (6/49) with ibuprofen 400 mg, and 6% (3/49) with placebo. In the other two multiple dose trials, the proportion of patients reporting any adverse effect was 23% (42/179) with rofecoxib 50 mg, 24% (45/181) with naproxen sodium 550 mg, and 18% (33/178) with placebo. CONCLUSIONS: Single dose rofecoxib 50 mg provided similar pain relief to naproxen sodium 550 mg over 12 hours. The duration of analgesia with rofecoxib 50 mg was similar to that of naproxen sodium 550 mg. Adverse effects were uncommon suggesting safety in short-term use of rofecoxib and naproxen sodium. Future research should include restriction on daily life and absence from work or school as outcomes

Show Racism The Red Card: potential barriers to the effective implementation of the anti-racist message

This discussion paper focuses on anti-racist groups associated with British Association football (soccer) and the barriers that they face in relation to effective implementation of the anti-racism message and aspirational cultural change. In order to address those issues (above) this essay draws on the educational charity Show Racism the Red Card (SRTRC) and their work to educate individuals in Great Britain though football. It takes an overview of the work of the charity, specifically focusing on three key areas relating to the group’s mission statement. Concluding comments are made on the current position of SRTRC in light of recent high-profile racist incidents