Do social networking groups support online petitions?

This article is the post-print version of the final paper that has been accepted for publication and is forthcoming in Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy. Copyright @ Emerald Group Publishing LimitedEPetitioning has been emerging as arguably the most important eParticipation institutional activity. This paper aims to provide some insights into how ePetitions are perceived and supported by social networking sites. The connection between the UK government’s ePetitioning system and social networking groups linking to governmental petitions was investigated. Online data from Facebook were collected and analysed with respect to numbers of supporters compared to official signatures. The results indicate that although the process of signing an official petition is not more complex than joining a Facebook group, the membership of respective Facebook groups can be much higher. In particular, certain topics experienced very high support on Facebook which did not convert to signatures. The paper raises interesting questions about the potential uptake of citizen-government interactions in policy making mechanisms.The online research tool used for data collection in this paper was developed by Steven Sams who acknowledges support by the World Class University (WCU) program through the National Research Foundation of Korea. The program is funded by the Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (No. 515-82-06574

Effect of hydration therapy on oligohydramnios

Background: Oligamnios is defined as an AFI 34 weeks with AFI <5 cms were randomised into an Intervention group who receive 1 litre of ringer lactate i.v given daily for 5 days and nonintervention group who were kept under observation by serial ultrasound and antepartum fetal surveillance. All were followed-up till delivery to obtain maternal and perinatal outcomes.Results: Among the 68 who were given intervention, 61 responded and 7 were non responders. With hydration therapy, mean increase in AFI was 4 cm and minimum duration needed for improvement was one week. Hydration therapy showed significant improvement in the maternal and fetal outcomes. Intravenous route of maternal hydration has the advantage that a fixed amount of fluid can be infused at a relatively constant rate with ensured compliance.Conclusions: From the study, it was concluded that Hydration therapy is an excellent method to improve AFI in Oligohydramnios and maternal and perinatal outcome

Pregnancy and heart disease: risk and predictors of obstetric complications

Background: Although the disease is limited to only 0.5 to 1.0 percent of pregnant women, it remains an important cause of maternal morbidity and even mortality and has a significant effect on fetal outcome. Pregnancy and the peripartum period are associated with important cardiocirculatory changes that can lead to marked clinical deterioration in the woman with heart disease. Objectives of present study were to comprehend the impact of heart disease during pregnancy, to study the maternal and neonatal outcomes of pregnancies in women with heart disease, to identify predictors of pregnancy related complications in women with heart disease and to refine the risk stratification and to assess the individual risk of each pregnant woman with heart disease.Methods: It is a perspective study carried out at College Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Govt. Medical, Kottayam from January 2012 to March 2014.Results: The outcomes of the pregnancies in 100 women who presented with heart disease and received their obstetrical care were evaluated. A maternal cardiac event, neonatal event, or both occurred in 37 completed pregnancies. A cardiac event complicated 8 completed pregnancies. It includes 2 maternal deaths, one on 9th postnatal day in women with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy and another in women with rheumatoid mitral stenosis who died of congestive cardiac failure. Most cardiac events (75%) occurred in the antepartum period and were either heart failure or cardiac arrhythmia.Conclusions: Strict prenatal care and early risk stratification during gestation are fundamental measures to improve the prognosis of pregnancy in women with heart disease