Emerging land markets in rural and urban China: Policies and practices

This article examines the evolution of China's land system in the past two decades. Since the early 1980s, China has altered its land use arrangements and introduced new regulations to manage land use changes. In the process the administrative allocation of land to users has been transformed into a complex hierarchical system of primary and secondary markets for land use rights. The changes in China's land system were adopted primarily for two reasons: to develop land markets to allocate land more efficiently and to protect agricultural land. An analysis of available data suggests that the development of land markets is still at an early stage, that the conversion of land to non-agricultural use continues but at a slower pace, and that illegal land use is pervasive. The article concludes with an assessment of the new land system and a discussion of some likely future changes.published_or_final_versio

Competing risk models of stillbirth inform populations but not individuals.

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.1394

The relationship between human placental morphometry and ultrasonic measurements of utero-placental blood flow and fetal growth.

INTRODUCTION: Ultrasonic fetal biometry and arterial Doppler flow velocimetry are widely used to assess the risk of pregnancy complications. There is an extensive literature on the relationship between pregnancy outcomes and the size and shape of the placenta. However, ultrasonic fetal biometry and arterial Doppler flow velocimetry have not previously been studied in relation to postnatal placental morphometry in detail. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study of nulliparous women in The Rosie Hospital, Cambridge (UK). We studied a group of 2120 women who had complete data on uterine and umbilical Doppler velocimetry and fetal biometry at 20, 28 and 36 weeks' gestational age, digital images of the placenta available, and delivered a liveborn infant at term. Associations were expressed as the difference in the standard deviation (SD) score of the gestational age adjusted ultrasound measurement (z-score) comparing the lowest and highest decile of the given placental morphometric measurement. RESULTS: The lowest decile of placental surface area was associated with 0.87 SD higher uterine artery Doppler mean pulsatility index (PI) at 20 weeks (95% CI: 0.68 to 1.07, P < 0.001). The lowest decile of placental weight was associated with 0.73 SD higher umbilical artery Doppler PI at 36 weeks (95% CI: 0.54 to 0.93, P < 0.001). The lowest decile of both placental weight and placental area were associated with reduced growth velocity of the fetal abdominal circumference between 20 and 36 weeks (both P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Placental area and weight are associated with uterine and umbilical blood flow, respectively, and both are associated with fetal growth rate.This study was funded by the NIHR Cambridge Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre (grant number A019057) and Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society (SANDS). GE donated two ultrasound machines for use in the project.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.placenta.2015.12.00

Tempo-spatial patterns of land use changes and urban development in globalizing China: A study of Beijing

This study examines the temporal and spatial changes in land use as a consequence of rapid urban development in the city of Beijing. Using a combination of techniques of remote sensing and GIS, the study identifies a substantial loss of plain dryland and a phenomenal expansion of urban construction land over the recent decade. Geographically, there is a clear shifting of urban construction land from the inner city to the outskirts as a consequence of suburbanization. The outward expansion of the ring-road system is found to be one of the most important driving forces explaining the temporal and spatial pattern of land use change. The uneven distribution of population stands as another factor with significant correlation with land use change. The application of the techniques of remote sensing and GIS can enhance the precision and comparability of research on land use change and urban transformation in China. © 2007 by MDPI.published_or_final_versio

Effect of Body Mass Index on pregnancy outcomes in nulliparous women delivering singleton babies

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Transformation of a rural economy in the Zhujiang delta

published_or_final_versio

Conceptualizing pathways linking women's empowerment and prematurity in developing countries.

BackgroundGlobally, prematurity is the leading cause of death in children under the age of 5. Many efforts have focused on clinical approaches to improve the survival of premature babies. There is a need, however, to explore psychosocial, sociocultural, economic, and other factors as potential mechanisms to reduce the burden of prematurity. Women's empowerment may be a catalyst for moving the needle in this direction. The goal of this paper is to examine links between women's empowerment and prematurity in developing settings. We propose a conceptual model that shows pathways by which women's empowerment can affect prematurity and review and summarize the literature supporting the relationships we posit. We also suggest future directions for research on women's empowerment and prematurity.MethodsThe key words we used for empowerment in the search were "empowerment," "women's status," "autonomy," and "decision-making," and for prematurity we used "preterm," "premature," and "prematurity." We did not use date, language, and regional restrictions. The search was done in PubMed, Population Information Online (POPLINE), and Web of Science. We selected intervening factors-factors that could potentially mediate the relationship between empowerment and prematurity-based on reviews of the risk factors and interventions to address prematurity and the determinants of those factors.ResultsThere is limited evidence supporting a direct link between women's empowerment and prematurity. However, there is evidence linking several dimensions of empowerment to factors known to be associated with prematurity and outcomes for premature babies. Our review of the literature shows that women's empowerment may reduce prematurity by (1) preventing early marriage and promoting family planning, which will delay age at first pregnancy and increase interpregnancy intervals; (2) improving women's nutritional status; (3) reducing domestic violence and other stressors to improve psychological health; and (4) improving access to and receipt of recommended health services during pregnancy and delivery to help prevent prematurity and improve survival of premature babies.ConclusionsWomen's empowerment is an important distal factor that affects prematurity through several intervening factors. Improving women's empowerment will help prevent prematurity and improve survival of preterm babies. Research to empirically show the links between women's empowerment and prematurity is however needed

A CARTOMANTE E A VIOLÊNCIA OCULTA

O texto tem como principal objetivo relacionar o conto "A cartomante", escrito por Machado de Assis, com o Direito, trazendo uma breve vinculação do meio jurídico entre os fatos ocorrido na época, com os fatos da atualidade, dentre eles, os crimes que, por diversas vezes, ocorrem na sociedade

Blinded ultrasonic fetal biometry at 36 weeks and the risk of emergency caesarean delivery: A prospective cohort study of 3,047 low risk nulliparous women

OBJECTIVES: We studied the risk of emergency caesarean delivery (CD) using blinded ultrasonographic estimated fetal weight (EFW) at 36 weeks of gestational age (wkGA): (1) to compare the association for customised and non-customised EFW, (2) to determine whether adding ultrasonic EFW improved prediction based on maternal characteristics alone, and (3) to determine whether women at high predicted risk of emergency CD had higher risks of maternal and perinatal morbidity than other women. METHODS: We studied 3,047 low risk women (no pre-existing medical conditions or acquired complications of pregnancy) from the Pregnancy Outcome Prediction study (Cambridge UK) who had ultrasonic EFW at ~36 weeks gestational age, where women and clinicians were blinded to the result. RESULTS: Blinded EFW was strongly associated with the risk of emergency CD (coefficient for a 1 standard deviation increase in EFW = 0.39 [95% CI 0.30 to 0.48], odds ratio [OR] = 1.48 [95% CI 1.35 to 1.62]). The coefficient for customised EFW was similar (0.42 [95% CI 0.33 to 0.51], OR = 1.53 [95% CI 1.39 to 1.67]), hence, for simplicity, non-customised EFW was subsequently employed. Maternal characteristics (age, height, body mass index, and weight gain between 12 and 36 weeks) when combined in a multivariate logistic regression model were moderately predictive for emergency CD (AUROCC = 0.68). Adding blinded EFW to the model increased the AUROCC to 0.71 and this model was more predictive (P < 0.0001). When using this model and defining screen positive as a predicted risk of emergency CD ≥40%, 189 (6.2%) women screened positive and the proportion delivered by caesarean was 48%. Compared with screen negative women, they had elevated risks (relative risk [95% CI]) of severe postpartum hemorrhage (2.49 [1.83 to 3.38]), any adverse neonatal outcome (1.86 [1.22 to 2.82]), and severe adverse neonatal outcome (4.03 [1.35 to 12.03]). The risks of these events were also higher compared to women who had a term CD for breech presentation. The model was similarly predictive of the risk of emergency CD and perinatal morbidity when evaluated using routinely collected data from 55,337 births in Scotland between 2003 and 2008. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasonic EFW at 36 weeks, combined with maternal characteristics, identifies women who are at increased risk of subsequent emergency CD. These women were at increased risk of maternal and perinatal morbidity compared with women at low risk of emergency CD and with women having CD for breech presentation at term