Potential Social Consequences Research Articles

Technology and the Limites of the Information Age circa 2002

This essay examines three competing views of technological change, developed at the beginning of the millennium, and their impact on our lives. The discussion will lead to three conclusions. First, we must be involved in decisions about how technology is regulated and used. Second, we should be wary not to consider all technologies as having the same effects. The cell phone is neither the personal computer nor the television, and there is no reason to consider each as having the same potential social consequences. Third, new methodologies must be developed to account for any changes in social relations that come about as a result of our adoption of these technologies. In the final section of the essay, the consequences of contemporary technologies on what it means to be human are briefly discussed. Rather than substitute technology for democracy or big data for the ability to find significant information, we must take democratic control of these technologies and affirm our humanity. Indeed, I argue along with noted commentators on technology that what makes us human is our ability to sort and find relevant information, reflect on our actions and take risks in associating with other humans. These are things that we must always bear in mind if we are to flourish in the information age.

Aproximación clínica a una primera crisis epiléptica en adultos

Seizures are one of the main reasons for visits to emergency and neurology. Represent a traumatic event with potential medical and social consequences. A first epileptic seizure, can be the initial manifestation of malignancy, systemic disorder or infection, but can also be the first manifestation of epilepsy. The misdiagnosis of symptomatic seizures and unprovoked seizure, significantly affects prognosis and patient outcomes. The aim of this review is to examine the general concepts that enable successful diagnostic and therapeutic approach to the patient presenting with a first epileptic seizure.

Overseas Chinese Christian Entrepreneurs in Modern China: A Case Study of the Influence of Christian Ethics on Business Life by Joy Kooi-Chin Tong (review)

Prajñ ap aramit a, the Dazhi du lun 大智度論, explaining the scholastic thinking of the Sarv astiv ada school pertinent at that time in Central Asia. In addition to the central part of the study in chapter 3, discussing the BWZL and thus giving the reader some insight into the intellectual debate on crucial aspects of early M adhyamika thinking in China, it must be regarded as a great achievement of this study that Streif also focuses on the political context, mainly in chapter 4. We learn about the interest of certain regional rulers, as well as of gentry families, in legitimating their position by means of Buddhist concepts, especially the bodhisattva ideal, as well as about the opportunities of exchange during times of peace between northern and southern China. Of utmost importance is the part (chapter 5) on the reflexive use of language and on the relation between language and reality, or words and things in general, and how the BWZL dealt with these problems in particular. In sum this study is a most insightful contribution to our knowledge of M adhyamika in China and on the intellectual situation in China in the first decades of the fifth century CE. HELWIG SCHMIDT-GLINTZER Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel JOY KOOI-CHIN TONG, Overseas Chinese Christian Entrepreneurs in Modern China: A Case Study of the Influence of Christian Ethics on Business Life. London and New York: Anthem Press, 2013. x, 167 pp. US$40 (pb). ISBN 9781 -78308-056-4 This book is a sociological enterprise based on participant observation and indepth interviews aiming to examine mainly how Christianity affects Overseas Chinese Christian entrepreneurs in contemporary China, particularly their economic practices. Through a well-planned set of solid methodological procedures and clearly written, cautiously proposed arguments, Tong provides valid, reliable, valuable findings to support her arguments that may correct, refute, or challenge some presumptuous claims and widely shared yet little proven impressions about Chinese Christianity, Confucianism, and business, or broader issues on the relationship between religious value and economic action. Accordingly, this volume helps the reader to theoretically appreciate how faithbased values, moral convictions, economic practices, and religious life interact (particularly in the light of Max Weber and his widely cited works and the responses to it); it also highlights the spiritual and social aspects of the entrepreneurs who have played significant roles in contributing to economic transformations since the reform and opening era and their potential social consequences to Chinese economic life and religious landscapes. The main body of the book (chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7) is arranged in a very Weberian way, which starts social analysis from values that orient the conduct of individuals and then moves on to larger social assemblages and organizations linking individuals. These four chapters are respectively devoted to investigating Overseas Chinese Christian entrepreneurs’ religiously-motivated values, religiousvalue -driven economic practices and organizational arrangements in their companies, their social networks and religious life, and the female subgroup. Among the values pointed out, many (such as innovation, self-discipline, frugality, the sense of success) could be commonly found among entrepreneurs in many 252 BOOK REVIEWS places and historical periods; however, Tong shows how these Overseas Chinese Christians articulate them to fit their aspirations crafted in a globalizing competitive market of business. In chapter 5, she further demonstrates different strategies of linking religious faith to or realizing it in the economic practices and organizational designs of corporations. While some individuals enthusiastically run a company like a church, others tend to take an individualized and privatized version of Christian beliefs and manage secular corporation affairs on their own terms. Still, some entrepreneurs choose a middle path to selectively and creatively implement some Christian values within the business, but purposely avoid mentioning or downplaying the practices’ religious source. Chapter 6 shows how the aforementioned Christian values and conduct are inspired, guided, and supervised by religious networks and contextualized within the dynamics of Christian interrelationships. Unlike what Weber observed in American Protestant cases at the beginning of the twentieth century in his short work, The Protestant Sects and the Spirit of Capitalism, these Overseas Chinese Christian businesspeople construct and charge their moral aspirations in economic practices through their continuous...

Escaped farmed salmon and trout in Chile: incidence, impacts, and the need for an ecosystem view

AEI Aquaculture Environment Interactions Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections AEI 4:273-283 (2013) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/aei00089 REVIEW Escaped farmed salmon and trout in Chile: incidence, impacts, and the need for an ecosystem view Maritza Sepúlveda1,*, Ivan Arismendi2, Doris Soto3, Fernando Jara4, Francisca Farias5 1Centro de Investigación y Gestión de los Recursos Naturales (CIGREN), Instituto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valparaíso, Gran Bretaña 1111, Playa Ancha, Valparaíso, Chile 2Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Nash Hall, Room 104, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA 3Aquaculture Management and Conservation Service (FIMA), Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, FAO of UN, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy 4Statistics and Information Service (FIPS), Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, FAO of UN, Via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy 5Oficina OCDE y Foros Internacionales, Ministerio del Medio Ambiente, Teatinos 258, Santiago, Chile *Email: maritza.sepulveda@uv.cl ABSTRACT: The exponential growth of the salmonid farming industry during the last 3 decades has created conditions for massive escapes of these exotic species into natural environments in southern Chile. Here, we review and update information about salmonid escapes from 1993 to 2012 and examine their potential environmental, social, and economic consequences. We estimate that more than 1 million salmonids escape each year from marine farms, mainly due to weather conditions and technical and operational failures of net-pens. While a decrease in the magnitude of escaped Atlantic and coho salmon has occurred during the last several years, escaped rainbow trout have not followed the same pattern. Rainbow trout have become a greater threat to native ecosystems due to their greater potential to establish self-sustaining naturalized populations. The main ecological effects of escapees are related to short-term predatory effects upon native fish, long-term effects linked to the likelihood of farmed salmon establishing self-sustainable populations, and disease and pathogen transfer to native fauna. More research is needed to identify and develop reliable indicators to estimate the impact of escapees at the ecosystem level in both marine and freshwater systems. An understanding of the mechanisms of coexistence between native fishes and introduced non-native salmonids may be useful to design effective management strategies aimed at protecting native fish from salmonid introductions. A precautionary approach that encourages local artisanal and recreational fisheries to counteract colonization and naturalization of salmon species in southern Chile may constitute another management option. KEY WORDS: Fish farming · Salmo salar · Oncorhynchus kisutch · Oncorhynchus mykiss · Exotic species Full text in pdf format PreviousNextCite this article as: Sepúlveda M, Arismendi I, Soto D, Jara F, Farias F (2013) Escaped farmed salmon and trout in Chile: incidence, impacts, and the need for an ecosystem view. Aquacult Environ Interact 4:273-283. https://doi.org/10.3354/aei00089 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in AEI Vol. 4, No. 3. Online publication date: December 19, 2013 Print ISSN: 1869-215X; Online ISSN: 1869-7534 Copyright © 2013 Inter-Research.

Field evaluation of the CRT and ACON chlamydia point-of-care tests in a tropical, low-resource setting

ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical performance of two chlamydia point-of-care (POC) tests compared with a gold standard nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT).MethodsTests evaluated were the Chlamydia Rapid Test (CRT), Diagnostics for...

The effects of a spruce bark beetle outbreak and wildfires on property values in the wildland–urban interface of south-central Alaska, USA

Climate warming is causing the frequency, extent, and severity of natural disturbances to increase. To develop innovative approaches for mitigating the potential negative social consequences of such increases, research is needed investigating how people perceive and respond to natural disturbance. This study uses spatial econometric techniques in a hedonic pricing framework to estimate how wildfires and a spruce bark beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) outbreak affect assessed property values on the Kenai Peninsula of south-central Alaska in 2001 and 2010. We find that large wildfires and the spruce bark beetle outbreak increase property values while small wildfires decrease property values. These findings suggest that homeowners may form complex viewpoints, weighing enhancements to environmental amenities with negative consequences that stem from the occurrence of natural disturbance.

Shavian Elements in the My Fair Lady Film

It seems temporally appropriate that George Cukor’s screen version of My Fair Lady should have been released in 1964, since it neatly concluded a half-century of attempts by actors, directors, and adapters alike to romanticize Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. From the very moment, in fact, that Herbert Beerbohm Tree and Mrs. Patrick (Stella) Campbell—in their respective roles of phonetician Henry Higgins and Cockney flower seller Eliza Doolittle—had improvised lines and stage business to imply to their opening-night London audience in 1914 that a romantic union between their two characters was inevitable, Shaw was embroiled in a perpetual struggle to control his conception of the play. To Shaw, the culminating point of Pygmalion was that Eliza achieves independence from the bullying Higgins. an Eliza-Higgins marriage, he declared, would have been “a revolting tragedy.”1 To that end, Shaw appended a prose sequel to the first (1916) English-language publication of Pygmalion in book form, in which he outlined Eliza’s married life with the youthful Freddy Eynsford Hill, a minor character in the play. However, the public, in general, “went on preferring its own version.”2 The advent of talking pictures offered Shaw an opportunity to reassert his wishes, and to this end he wrote his own screenplay adaptation in 1934 for the first ( German) film version of Pygmalion (Erich Engel, 1935), making it a contractual requirement that the filmmakers adhered to his (translated) scenario, in which any suggestion of a Higgins-Eliza romance had been carefully removed. Without having seen the resulting film, Shaw also granted screen adaptation rights on the same condition to Dutchand English-language productions (Pygmalion, Ludwig

Responses of chimpanzees to cues of conspecific observation

Recent evidence has shown that humans are remarkably sensitive to artificial cues of conspecific observation when making decisions with potential social consequences. Whether similar effects are found in other great apes has not yet been investigated. We carried out two experiments in which individual chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, took items of food from an array in the presence of either an image of a large conspecific face or a scrambled control image. In experiment 1 we compared three versions of the face image varying in size and the amount of the face displayed. In experiment 2 we compared a fourth variant of the image with more prominent coloured eyes displayed closer to the focal chimpanzee. The chimpanzees did not look at the face images significantly more than at the control images in either experiment. Although there were trends for some individuals in each experiment to be slower to take high-value food items in the face conditions, these were not consistent or robust. We suggest that the extreme human sensitivity to cues of potential conspecific observation may not be shared with chimpanzees.

3D, SF and the future

This article assesses the use of ‘science fiction’ (SF) in visioning or prototyping the potential economic and social consequences of so-called 3D printing. What is becoming clear to many commentators as well as science fiction writers is how rapid prototyping, or 3D printing more generally, could permit many final objects to be made near to or even by consumers on just-in-time ‘printing’ machines. This revolution in making would have many implications for the economy-and-society in the future by seriously augmenting, or possibly replacing, current systems of manufactured production, long-distance transportation and consumption. These 3D technologies have featured in SF works, including Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, Ian McDonald's Brasyl, Charles Stross's Rule 34 and Cory Doctorow's Makers. The article reports on current research seeking to understand the implications of what may be a major new sociotechnical system in the making. Some creative uses of SF are presented in a professional workshop setting. As well the article documents the use of SF as a methodological prototype in forecasting alternative scenarios of the future. SF prototyping could be a powerful tool in the social science repertoire when put into action in forecasting possible technology and business futures.

Corporate Dystopia: The Ethics of Corporate Political Spending

This paper is concerned with the moral permissibility of corporate political activities under the existing legal framework in the United States. I unpack and examine the standard case for and against the involvement of business in lobbying and electoral activities. And I provide six objections against the standard arguments and propose that the wrongness of corporate political activities does not have much to do with its potential social consequences but rather with non-consequentialist considerations. My ultimate aim is to make sense of the intuition that corporate political spending is morally objectionable. I argue that my case against corporate political spending fares better than the standard case. What is wrong with the current system of regulation of corporate lobbying and campaign finance is that it is inconsistent with the principles of political equality and consent. It follows that by taking advantage of this unfair regulatory framework, business firms are making a contribution to undermine the basis of a robust democratic regime at both the societal and the corporate level.

Método numérico para la evaluación holística del riesgo sísmico utilizando la teoría de conjuntos difusos

The fuzzy set theory offers a bridge between the symbolic and numerical processing, allowing managing qualitative concepts useful in the decision-making process related to the seismic risk management and, in general, to the disaster risk management. Its use in the seismic risk evaluation is necessary in the cases where the data required to apply a conventional method of assessing risk are not available or are insufficient. One possible solution, considered in this article, is to replace the missing information by expert opinions and to process the resulting qualitative variables and linguistic qualifications instead of numerical values. This process is based on the fuzzy set theory. In order to achieve an effective management, the risk must be defined as the potential physical, economic, social and environmental consequences which occur due to hazards in a given period of time. From this holistic perspective and using the fuzzy set theory, the proposed numerical method calculates a level of the physical risk and level of the aggravating conditions related to social fragility and to the lack of resilience, to determine a total risk level. In the article are included two examples of application of the proposed method and the obtained results are compared with those corresponding to a conventional method of holistic evaluation.

Corporate Dystopia

This article is concerned with the moral permissibility of corporate political activities under the existing legal framework in the United States. The author unpacks and examines the standard case for and against the involvement of business in lobbying and electoral activities. And the author provides six objections against the standard arguments and proposes that the wrongness of corporate political activities does not have much to do with its potential social consequences but rather with nonconsequentialist considerations. The author’s ultimate aim is to make sense of the intuition that corporate political spending is morally objectionable. The author argues that his case against corporate political spending fares better than the standard case. What is wrong with the current system of regulation of corporate lobbying and campaign finance is that it is inconsistent with the principles of political equality and consent. By taking advantage of this unfair regulatory framework, business firms are making a contribution to undermine the basis of a robust democratic regime at both the societal and the corporate level.

A Toolbox for Impact Assessment and Sustainability

Impact Assessment (IA) is increasingly used by the European Commission and Member States to assess the potential economic, social and environmental consequences of new policy initiatives. To support the IA process, the European Network of Excellence LIAISE is developing a Toolbox which is simultaneously accessible and useful for policy makers as well as for the research community. This paper introduces the developed Toolbox, which provides an interactive library of models, publications, projects, good practices, and experts to support IAs. Special emphasis has been given to enable access to adding and editing information

Mental Health, Stigmatising Beliefs, Barriers to Care and Help-Seeking in a Non-Deployed Sample of UK Army Personnel

Introduction: Stigmatising beliefs about seeking help for mental health problems and perceived barriers to care (stigma/BTC) are commonplace among military personnel; how they influence help-seeking is unclear. Aim: To explore the role of stigma/BTC in mental health help-seeking among British Army personnel. Method: Randomly selected non-deployed personnel were assessed by questionnaire for mental health and alcohol use status, stigma/BTC levels, help-seeking and mental health related perceptions. Results: The response rate was 81.5% (n=484). 35.0% screened positive for harmful alcohol use, 25.2% for common mental disorder symptoms, and 12.4% for probable PTSD. 40.0% of symptomatic personnel had not sought help. 70.3% of alcohol misusers had not sought any form of help; over 80% of probable mental health cases believed that seeking support was helpful or necessary and required courage or strength. Non-medical help sources were accessed more frequently than military medical services. Stigma/BTC significantly affected probable mental health cases but not alcohol misusers. Greater stigmatisation/BTC were associated with both interest in and receiving support. Friends or family were the commonest preferred and actual help source; unit commanders were among the least preferred but were the second most commonly accessed help source. Conclusion: A substantial number of symptomatic personnel had not sought help. The highest levels of stigma/ BTC were most strongly associated with interest in receiving help. Perceptions of potential negative occupational and social consequences of help-seeking and current mental health status may influence the decision to seek support. Military stigma reduction strategies may need to focus upon reassuring personnel and their families that adverse consequences are not inevitable and that help-seeking from any source may be a useful step in addressing mental health problems. Alcohol misusers may benefit from a strategy that helps them to view their alcohol use as potentially socially and occupationally problematic.

Examining the Relationship Between Ostracism and ADHD

Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a behavioral disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity (Cincinnati Children’s, 2013). Much of ADHD research focuses on the potential social consequences of ADHD such as ostracism. More detailed research goes on to examine the impact of ostracism on affect, such as increased depression and anxiety among ostracized individuals. However, recent ostracism research indicates that feelingsof social exclusion may cause a decline in performance on cognitive and behavioral measures. I propose that if ostracism can cause cognitive and behavioral patterns that resemble those of ADHD, then it is possible that prolonged ostracism (especially early in life) can exacerbate risk for developing ADHD. Furthermore, it is plausible that individuals who are ostracized, as a consequence of ADHD may not only experience negative emotions, but may also experience compromised cognitive function. Thus while the present view of the relationship between ADHD and ostracism is one directional: ADHD leads to ostracism (ADHD ostracism), I propose that the relationship between ADHD and ostracism might be reciprocal: ostracism causes ADHD, thus causing further ostracism, further increasing ADHD-related cognitive and behavioral deficits (ADHD ostracism). This review surveys the literature and links cognitive and behavioral characteristics that ADHD and the consequences of social exclusion share.

Motherhood preconceived: the emergence of the Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative.

Since the 1980s, maternal and child health experts have sought to redefine maternity care to include the period prior to pregnancy, essentially by expanding the concept of prenatal care to encompass the time before conception. In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed and promoted this new definition when it launched the Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative. In arguing that prenatal care was often too little too late, a group of maternal and child health experts in the United States attempted to spur improvements in population health and address systemic problems in health care access and health disparities. By changing the terms of pregnancy risk and by using maternalism as a social policy strategy, the preconception health and health care paradigm promoted an ethic of anticipatory motherhood and conflated women's health with maternal health, sparking public debate about the potential social and clinical consequences of preconception care. This article tracks the construction of this policy idea and its ultimate potential utility in health and health policy discussions.

Psychosociale aspecten van halitose

Using a representative sample from the Dutch population, some psychosocial aspects of halitosis were examined. The results of the survey showed that almost 90% of the Dutch population aged 16 years and older were regularly faced with halitosis. Forty percent reported to be exposed to someone with halitosis at least once a week, men significantly more frequently than women. Although less strongly than body odour, halitosis was reported as being one of the most severe 'let-downs' in social interactions. The greater the social distance between subjects, the less likely is the chance that a person's attention will be drawn to halitosis experienced. When it comes to an unknown person, the chance was no more than 7%, suggesting that it is problematic to draw a person's attention to the presence of halitosis. Considering the potential social consequences of halitosis is it important that dentists and dental hygienists draw patients' attention to the presence of halitosis, when this is the case, thereby encouraging them to seek adequate treatment.

DIFFERENTIAL PREDICTION OF C02 CHALLENGE RESPONSE AS A FUNCTION OF THE TAXON AND COMPLEMENT CLASSES OF ANXIETY SENSITIVITY

Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is a trait-like characteristic capturing fears of the experience of anxiety and the potential psychological, somatic, or social consequences associated with anxiety. Recently, research has provided evidence for the latent structure of AS suggesting two discrete types, i.e. a taxonic class and a complement class. Investigations have identified combinations from the 16-items of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) that are able to predict the taxon class of AS, referred to as the ASI taxon scales. The current study investigated the ability of a new ASI taxon scale, comprised of the seven overlapping items of the previously identified ASI taxon scales, to predict CO(2) challenge responses. This was examined in a sample of 387 nonclinical participants presenting for an AS treatment program. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires and a 20% CO(2) challenge as part of the program. Analyses indicated that the ASI taxon scale uniquely predicted CO(2) challenge response, whereas the complement scale did not have a significant association. The present study provides the first evidence of the AS taxon having the ability to predict an exaggerated fear response to a novel stressor known to be associated with anxiety psychopathology. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Induced Innovation and Social Inequality: Evidence from Infant Medical Care

We develop a model of induced innovation where research effort is a function of the death rate, and thus the potential to reduce deaths in the population. We also consider potential social consequences that arise from this form of induced innovation based on differences in disease prevalence across population subgroups (i.e. race). Our model yields three empirical predictions. First, initial death rates and subsequent research effort should be positively correlated. Second, research effort should be associated with more rapid mortality declines. Third, as a byproduct of targeting the most common conditions in the population as a whole, induced innovation leads to growth in mortality disparities between minority and majority groups. Using information on infant deaths in the U.S. between 1983 and 1998, we find support for all three empirical predictions. We estimate that induced innovation predicts about 20 percent of declines in infant mortality over this period. At the same time, innovation that occurred in response to the most common causes of death favored the majority racial group in the U.S., whites. We estimate that induced innovation contributed about one third of the rise in the black-white infant mortality ratio during our period of study.

Delayed Child-Bearing

ObjectiveTo provide an overview of delayed child-bearing and to describe the implications for women and health care providers. OptionsDelayed child-bearing, which has increased greatly in recent decades, is associated with an increased risk of infertility, pregnancy complications, and adverse pregnancy outcome. This guideline provides information that will optimize the counselling and care of Canadian women with respect to their reproductive choices. OutcomesMaternal age is the most important determinant of fertility, and obstetric and perinatal risks increase with maternal age. Many women are unaware of the success rates or limitations of assisted reproductive technology and of the increased medical risks of delayed child-bearing, including multiple births, preterm delivery, stillbirth, and Caesarean section. This guideline provides a framework to address these issues. EvidenceStudies published between 2000 and August 2010 were retrieved through searches of PubMed and the Cochrane Library using appropriate key words (delayed child-bearing, deferred pregnancy, maternal age, assisted reproductive technology, infertility, and multiple births) and MeSH terms (maternal age, reproductive behaviour, fertility). The Internet was also searched using similar key words, and national and international medical specialty societies were searched for clinical practice guidelines and position statements. Data were extracted based on the aims, sample, authors, year, and results. ValuesThe quality of evidence was rated using the criteria described in the Report of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care (Table 1). SponsorThe Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. Recommendations1.Women who delay child-bearing are at increased risk of infertility. Prospective parents, especially women, should know that their fecundity and fertility begin to decline significantly after 32 years of age. Prospective parents should know that assisted reproductive technologies cannot guarantee a live birth or completely compensate for age-related decline in fertility. (II-2A)2.A fertility evaluation should be initiated after 6 months of unprotected intercourse without conception in women 35 to 37 years of age, and earlier in women > 37 years of age. (II-2A)3.Prospective parents should be informed that semen quality and male fertility deteriorate with advancing age and that the risk of genetic disorders in offspring increases. (II-2A)4.Women ≥ 35 years of age should be offered screening for fetal aneuploidy and undergo a detailed second trimester ultrasound examination to look for significant fetal birth defects (particularly cardiac defects). (II-1A)5.Delayed child-bearing is associated with increased obstetrical and perinatal complications. Care providers need to be aware of these complications and adjust obstetrical management protocols to ensure optimal maternal and perinatal outcomes. (II-2A)6.All adults of reproductive age should be aware of the obstetrical and perinatal risks of advanced maternal age so they can make informed decisions about the timing of child-bearing. (II-2A)7.Strategies to improve informed decision-making by prospective parents should be designed, implemented, and evaluated. These strategies should provide opportunity for adults to understand the potential medical, social, and economic consequences of child-bearing throughout the reproductive years. (III-B)8.Barriers to healthy reproduction, including workplace policies, should be reviewed to optimize the likelihood of healthy pregnancies. (III-C)