Induced abortion on demand and birth rate in Sami-speaking municipalities and a control group in Finnmark, Norway

Objectives. The objective of this study was to analyze the birth and induced abortion on demand (IAD) rate among women in Sami-speaking communities and a control group in Finnmark County, Norway. Methods. The 6 northern municipalities included in the administration area of the Sami language law (study group) were matched with a control group of 9 municipalities. Population data (numbers, sex and age) were accessed from Statistics Norway. Data on birth rate and IAD during the time period 1999–2009 were derived from the Medical Birth Registry (MBR) of Norway. Data on number of women in fertile age (15–44 years) were obtained from Statistics Norway. Between 2001 and 2008, this age group was reduced by 12% (Sami) and 23% (controls), respectively. Results. Finnmark County has a high IAD rate and 1 in 4 pregnancies (spontaneous abortions excluded) ended in IAD in the study and control groups. The total fertility rate per woman was 1.94 and 1.87 births, respectively. There was no difference between groups with regard to the IAD/birth ratio (P=0.94) or general fertility rate GFR (P=0.82). Conclusions. Women in the Sami-majority area and a control group in Finnmark County experienced a similar frequency of IAD and fertility rate

Is increased time to diagnosis and treatment in symptomatic cancer associated with poorer outcomes?:Systematic review

background: It is unclear whether more timely cancer diagnosis brings favourable outcomes, with much of the previous evidence, in some cancers, being equivocal. We set out to determine whether there is an association between time to diagnosis, treatment and clinical outcomes, across all cancers for symptomatic presentations. methods: Systematic review of the literature and narrative synthesis. results: We included 177 articles reporting 209 studies. These studies varied in study design, the time intervals assessed and the outcomes reported. Study quality was variable, with a small number of higher-quality studies. Heterogeneity precluded definitive findings. The cancers with more reports of an association between shorter times to diagnosis and more favourable outcomes were breast, colorectal, head and neck, testicular and melanoma. conclusions: This is the first review encompassing many cancer types, and we have demonstrated those cancers in which more evidence of an association between shorter times to diagnosis and more favourable outcomes exists, and where it is lacking. We believe that it is reasonable to assume that efforts to expedite the diagnosis of symptomatic cancer are likely to have benefits for patients in terms of improved survival, earlier-stage diagnosis and improved quality of life, although these benefits vary between cancers

Street, Chepstow. 1/2 miles

Chepstow, Monmouthshire, Wales, Great Britai

Crowdsourcing content creation in the classroom

The recent growth in crowdsourcing technologies offers a new way of envisioning student involvement in the classroom. This article describes a participatory action research approach to combining crowdsourced content creation with the student as producer model, whereby students’ interests are used to drive the identification and creation of educational content. This article first describes how this approach is grounded in cognitive psychology and aligned with contemporary learner-centered approaches to education. A case study is then provided detailing how this conceptual framework was implemented in an undergraduate psychology course on persuasion and influence. Two specific applications of this approach are described, one involving found content—with students identifying, explaining the research basis for, and archiving examples of persuasive content, they discover outside the classroom, in a public blog entitled Propaganda for Change—and a second involving content creation—with students producing their own persuasive messages that promote pro-social messages of their choosing. This framework offers a promising contemporary approach to learner-centered education and shifts the burden of education from figuring out how to expose what students know and are interested in into helping them construct relationships between content and their own prior understanding of the world