title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: The following season quickly saw the team fall from grace and they only managed a twelfth-place finish (third from bottom) in the league. The new head coach Chi Shangbin resigned after only three mouths due to his poor relationship with the squad, especially from then-captain Li Weifeng and senior players like Li Yi and Yang Chen. Chi was unhappy due to the senior players' influential control over the team, their unprofessional behavior and discipline especially with gambling. He tried to regain control of the squad with his strictness, but most of the players reacted fiercely by training and playing even more poorly. Li Weifeng punched Chi's office window; Yang Chen, who is already a relatively gentle person got upset too and repeatedly exposed the uselessness of Chi's policy to media, which saw the then owner Yang Saixin having to let Chi go. Both of them later infamously and sensationally labeled the troublemakers as "QiuBa"(Football-lord). Throughout the chaos, Shenzhen were still able to reach the 2005 AFC Champions League semi-finals after defeating Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli despite losing the first leg in Jeddah before they were later heavily defeated by UAE champions Al Ain FC 6–0 in the semi-finals.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: The following season the Jianlibao Group lacked interest and cash for investment and were taken over by the Beijing Huizhong Tianheng Investment Company. While the acquisition went through the club survived merely on sponsorship and by selling the best players off. Under domestic head coaches and youngsters from the youth teams founded back in Jianlibao era stepped up in time, and avoided relegations with help from key foreign players in Marek Zając and his compatriot Bogdan Zając. After a heavy defeat at home losing 1–4 to the champion Changchun Yatai at the last match of 2007 season, owner Yang Saixin claimed that he was "fed up" and wanted to sell the club. With no buyers and bids the club went into administration and it was only through their sponsorship deals and the Shenzhen Football Association keeping the club afloat. They experienced more difficulties when their head coach Mai Chao unexpectedly left after one match to join the Guangzhou Football Association and manage their youth team. Long-serving youth coach Zhang Zengqun took over, later joined by former head coach Wang Baoshan as technical consultant. With crucial goals coming from Johnson, nicknamed "Angolan the Great" by fans, who surprisingly won the silver boot award with 13 goals; and veteran Song Lihui the club survived relegation despite a difficult start to the season.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: On January 21, 2009, Shenzhen F.C. was reportedly bought out of administration by a "Hong Kong based investor" who gained control by acquiring 51% of the club's stock, with the remaining 49% to be transferred in the next six months for a complete takeover alongside former player Fan Yuhong who also brought in his academy at Nanshan, Shenzhen to become the club's youth side while as well as becoming the new managerial director and acting-head coach. On February 28, 2009, Fan Yuhong revealed that the new owners of the club were two main shareholders of China Motion, a publicly listed company in Hong Kong, however these rumors were false. The reality of Shenzhen's finances was that the club's sponsor Shenzhen Asia Travel Sports Culture Communication Co., Ltd were acquiring the majority of the club's shares. Meanwhile, Shenzhen were in talks with a new kit advertisement and naming right sponsor, which would help further stabilize and secure the club's finances while the takeover finished, but only received a miner deal halfway through the season. On November 4, 2009 Wan Wongwei, a representative of a Singapore-based investment company revealed himself as the real investor and chairman of the club. With the Ruby company founded by him and other shareholders to run the club he decided to renamed the club as Shenzhen Ruby FC. Meanwhile, back on the field the team started the season slow and after a heavy 6–1 defeat to Guangzhou F.C. on August 8, Fan was sacked. Former player and coach Xie Feng was appointed as spearhead of the possible return of the legendary Zhu Guanghu, but Zhu turned to wealthier Shaanxi Chanba instead. As Xie Feng tightened the defense, and crucial reinforcements from the transfer market including Hernan Barcos, Mao Jianqing, Marko Zoric and Chen Jie, the team impressively had a 10 match unbeaten run towards the end of season and avoided relegation, despite a controversial 3-point deduction from the FA for wearing the wrong colour kit and in the subsequently delayed match versus Shanghai Shenhua.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: Former Cyprus international Siniša Gogić was appointed as head coach for the 2010 season. The attacking and passionate Serbian brought a roller-coaster run combined with an unbeaten start even once reaching the top of the table, however consecutive loses saw them slide towards a relegation fight till the last match of the season. Up to eight foreign players including various internationals Chris Killen, Aleksandar Živković, Vyacheslav Hleb, Ivan Vicelich and Hussein Alaa Hussein all contributed throughout the season and saved the club from relegation for the sixth consecutive season. Off the pitch Ruby Company also announced the three years sponsorship and cooperation deal from Kweichow Moutai Company worth more than 100 million RMB. The club added "Moutai" in its name once again as their named sponsor.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: From a meeting during the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, Wan Hongwei signed former Japanese international head coach Philippe Troussier with a luxurious three-year contract under the financial sponsorship from Moutai Company. Troussier would have a difficult start to his reign when the team had to move from their home ground Shenzhen City Stadium and training ground to Huizhou Olympic Stadium because of the 2011 Summer Universiade. When the team returned to Shenzhen in their new home Bao'an Stadium, Troussier had enforced a youthful revolution within the team, however it turned out to be too radical for the club despite the refreshing ball passing and possessing tactics that they displayed and they suffered from a dreadful club-record six consecutive defeats that also included a cup tie. Despite these defeats he continued to keep faith with the youngsters and "banished" the mature players to the bench or the stand for various reasons. His youngsters collapsed in front of the enormous pressure and unlike in the past campaigns "the relegation escapists" were relegated after 14 years, making them the first professional former top tier champions to be relegated since the foundation of professional football in China.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: The club kept faith in Troussier for the 2012 season in the Chinese Jia League and allowed him full influence over the squad, staff structure and pre-season arrangements, control almost unheard of with the current Chinese game. An unpromising start again quickly disappointed fans and caused further upset and conflict left behind from the previous season, which escalated in the fourth round in the league match versus Chongqing F.C. when in a local TV interview Troussier fired out against criticism and doubt from fans and urged them "not to come to the game or him". Shenzhen Ruby won the match, however former players who were forced to leave by Troussier in his efforts to force youth into the team Li Fei and Chris Killen scored for Chongqing F.C. in their first return to Shenzhen and physical confrontations took place after the match among fans, staffs, players and even Troussier himself. His passing tactics lacked penetration on mediocre pitch conditions especially at away grounds and sitting back opposition. This wasn't helped by his off the pitch eccentric personality and temperament, which alienated his relationships with the squad and staff, which was highlighted after a defeat to Chengdu Tiancheng F.C. in an August 25 game saw the club's hopes for promotion vanish with Troussier soon afterwards providing a statement that he would take leave back to France on a "regular holiday under his contract". The club's supporters would believe the board sent him on leave hoping that the indignity would see him resign rather than compensating him the 1 Million euros per year in his contract, however he returned from his holiday despite having two of his close staff members leave and assistant manager Patrick Aussems take charge as caretaker. Upon his return the board accepted his proposal to let Aussems continue to manage first team till the end of the season, while he would go backstage for the preparation for next season.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: Aussems and fitness coach Christian Jahan gave a refreshing finish of the season, earning 11 points in 7 matches, but not enough to convince the board for permanent appointment. By the end of the year, based on the fact that the board could not afford to sack but still need Troussier's fame for media exposure and sponsor search, a new agreement with Troussier is reached by announcing his continuous management for another season and reforming the backroom as he wanted. Aussems and Jahan, who were invited in by Troussier to join him at the first place, were released after their relationship with Troussier deteriorated after caretaking the team as the board appointed during the "holiday incident". Troussier brought in Eric Garcin and Rabah Ben Larbi as replacement backroom staffs. His personal assistant David Camhi also returned after an attempt of resignation during "holiday incident" was never accepted by the board.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: After Philippe Troussier's tenue came to an end and he was unable to gain promotion for the club it saw Wan Hongwei and the Ruby company actively start to pull funding from the team. This resulted in the July 15, 2014 FA Cup game against Shandong Luneng being delayed by 20 minutes while the Shenzhen players held a banner proclaiming unpaid wages from the owner. After the game in which Shenzhen lost 5–0 the club's manager Li Yi defended his team on their actions. On January 16, 2015 the owners officially announced that they had sold-off 55 percent of the shares within the club and the club's official name had changed to Shenzhen Municipal Football Club Co., Ltd. On October 27, 2015 Deng Junjie () and the Hong Kong Honghu Capital Group took over the club. On 12 April 2016, property development company the Kaisa Group held a ceremony to proclaim their ownership of the club.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: In the 2018 China League One, the team pulled off a last-round comeback to finish second ahead of Zhejiang Greentown, who held the second place for the last 13 rounds, and earned promotion back to the top division after a 7-year absence. The team, upon promotion, though, only finished 15th out of 16th, yet were saved from relegation when Tianjin Tianhai filed for bankruptcy.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: In the 2020 season, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the China Super League structure was transformed as a tournament based league. In the Dalian Division, Shenzhen FC recorded 5W-2D-7L in the division ranked 5th to get into the relegation playoff. In the first round of the relegation playoff, Shenzhen FC lost to Tianjin Teda in aggregate 1-3. In the second round of the playoff, Shenzhen FC beat Shijiazhuang Yongchang in aggregate 3-2 to avoid the relegation. In the final playoff in 2020 China Super League, Shenzhen FC beat Qingdao Huanghai in aggregate 4-1, which made Shenzhen FC finally ranked 13th in China Super League. John Mary scored 13 goals in total ranked 3th in the top scorers following Cedric Bakambu and Paulinho.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: In the first period of 2021 season, Jordi Cruyff's team recorded 2W-2D-1L in first five games. On June 3, Shenzhen FC made an announcement that Jordi Cruyff stepped down as the head coach of the club and will work for the Barcelona. Also the same day, after a friendly negotiation, Shenzhen FC decided to hire José Carlos Granero as the head coach of the club.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: Since 2018, the club has developed a grassroots football program aimed at improving football in the city and in young people. They developed youth teams in collaboration with the local education ministry in Shenzhen. Currently, the club has different teams of young players, from U13 to U19. The director of the youth training department is Wang YiDi. The Spanish coach, Roberto Mickel Abrante, serves as scouting director and deputy to the youth soccer department in this project.


title: Shenzhen F.C.

text: When Ping An Insurance took over the club they incorporated their own logo of a giant A that emphasizes the An in their name as the club's new badge and predominantly used green as the club's home colours while red tops with white shorts was the preferred option for their away kits. When Jianlibao Group took over they too decided to change the club's badge, however they decided not to use their own logo as the club's new badge and decided to choose a new design of wings over an orange background that would also be the club's new home colours while green was converted to their away uniforms. When the Jianlibao Group left, the club's Chairman Yang Saixin started to make blue the club's home colours while also changing the club's badge, initially they were two dragons until the 2009 league season saw it changed to a bird flying over a giant football.


title: Six Characters in Search of an Author

text: Six Characters in Search of an Author ( ) is an Italian play by Luigi Pirandello, written and first performed in 1921. An absurdist metatheatric play about the relationship among authors, their characters, and theatre practitioners, it premiered at the Teatro Valle in Rome to a mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of ""Manicomio"!" ("Madhouse!") and ""Incommensurabile"!" ("Off the scale!"), a reaction to the play's illogical progression. Reception improved at subsequent performances, especially after Pirandello provided for the play's third edition, published in 1925, a foreword clarifying its structure and ideas.


title: Six Characters in Search of an Author

text: The play was given in an English translation in the West End of London in February 1922, and had its American premiere in October of that year at the Princess Theatre, New York.


title: Six Characters in Search of an Author

text: An acting company prepares to rehearse the play "The Rules of the Game" by Luigi Pirandello. As the rehearsal is about to begin, they are unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of six strange people. The Director of the play, furious at the interruption, demands an explanation. The Father explains that they are unfinished characters in search of an author to finish their story. The Director initially believes them to be mad, but as they begin to argue among themselves and reveal details of their story, he begins to listen. The Father and The Mother had one child together (The Son), but they have separated and Mother has had three children by another man – The Stepdaughter, The Boy and The Child (a girl). The Father attempted to buy sex from The Stepdaughter, claiming he did not recognize her after so many years, but The Stepdaughter is convinced he knew who she was the entire time. The Mother walked in on The Father and The Stepdaughter shortly after The Father's proposal and informs The Stepdaughter that he is her ex-husband; they both express their disgust and outrage. While The Director is not an author, he agrees to stage their story despite disbelief among the jeering actors.


title: Six Characters in Search of an Author

text: After a 20-minute break, The Characters and The Company return to the stage to perform some of the story so far. They begin to perform the scene between The Stepdaughter and The Father in Madame Pace's shop, which the Director decides to call Scene I. The Characters are very particular about the setting, wanting everything to be as realistic as possible. The Director asks The Actors to observe the scene because he intends for them to perform it later. This sparks the first argument between The Director and The Characters over the acting of the play because The Characters had assumed that they would be performing it, seeing as they are The Characters already. The Director continues the play, but The Stepdaughter has more problems with the accuracy of the setting, saying she doesn't recognize the scene. Just as The Director is about to begin the scene once more, he realizes that Madame Pace is not with them. The Actors watch in disbelief as The Father lures her to the stage by hanging their coats and hats on racks, and Madame Pace follows, "attracted by the very articles of her trade".


title: Six Characters in Search of an Author

text: The scene begins between Madame Pace and The Stepdaughter, with Madame Pace exhorting The Stepdaughter, telling her she must work as a prostitute to save The Mother's job. The Mother protests at having to watch the scene, but she is restrained. After The Father and The Stepdaughter act half of the scene, The Director stops them so that The Actors may perform what they have just done. The Characters break into laughter as The Actors try to imitate them. The Actors continue but The Stepdaughter cannot contain her laughter as The Actors use the wrong tones of voice and gestures. The Father begins another argument with The Director over the realism of The Actors compared to The Characters themselves. The Director allows The Characters to perform the rest of the scene and decides to have the rehearsals later.


title: Six Characters in Search of an Author

text: This time, The Stepdaughter explains the rest of the scene during an argument with The Director over the truth on stage. The scene culminates in an embrace between The Father and The Stepdaughter, which is realistically interrupted by the distressed Mother. The line between reality and acting is blurred as the scene closes with The Director pleased with the first act.


title: Six Characters in Search of an Author

text: The final act of the play begins in the garden. It is revealed that there was much arguing among the family members as The Father sent for The Mother, The Stepdaughter, The Child, The Boy, and The Son to come back and stay with him. The Son reveals that he hates the family for sending him away and does not consider The Stepdaughter or the others a part of his family. The scene ends with The Child drowning in a fountain, The Boy committing suicide with a revolver, and The Stepdaughter running out of the theater, leaving The Son, The Mother, and The Father on stage. The play ends with The Director confused over whether it was real or not, concluding that in either case he lost a whole day over it.


title: Six Characters in Search of an Author

text: The play was staged in 1921 by the Compagnia di Dario Niccodemi at the Valle Theatre in Rome to mixed results. The public split into supporters and adversaries. The author, who was present at the presentation with his daughter Lietta, was forced to leave the theatre through a side exit in order to avoid the crowd of opponents. However, the play was a great success when presented in Milan.


title: Six Characters in Search of an Author

text: The first production in English was given at the Kingsway Theatre, London on 26 February 1922, directed by Theodore Komisarjevsky, with the following cast:


title: Civic engagement

text: Civic engagement or civic participation is any individual or group activity addressing issues of public concern. Civic engagement includes communities working together or individuals working alone in both political and non-political actions to protect public values or make a change in a community. The goal of civic engagement is to address public concerns and promote the quality of the community.


title: Civic engagement

text: Civic engagement is "a process in which people take collective action to address issues of public concern" and is "instrumental to democracy" (Checkoway & Aldana, 2012). Underrepresentation of groups in the government causes issues faced by groups such as minority, low-income, and younger groups to be overlooked or ignored. In turn, issues for higher voting groups are addressed more frequently, causing more bills to be passed to fix these problems (Griffin & Newman, 2008).


title: Civic engagement

text: Civic engagement can take many forms—from individual volunteerism, community engagement efforts, organizational involvement and government work such as electoral participation. These engagements may include directly addressing a problem through personal work, community based, or work through the institutions of representative democracy. Many individuals feel a sense of personal responsibility to actively engage in their community. "Youth civic engagement" has similar aims to develop the community environment and cultivate relationships, although youth civic engagement emphasizes on empowering youth. A study published by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement at Tufts University categorized civic engagement into three categories: civic, electoral, and political voice. Scholars of youth engagement online have called for a broader interpretation of civic engagement that focuses on the purpose behind current institutions and activities and includes emerging institutions and activities that achieve the same purposes. A journal published by the Journal of Transformative Education suggests the gap in participation forms between different generations. These civic engagement researchers suggest that the reduction of civic life into small sets of explicitly electoral behaviors may be insufficient to describe the full spectrum of public involvement in civic life.


title: Civic engagement

text: Civic engagement reform arose at the beginning of the 21st century after Robert Putnam's book "Bowling Alone" brought to light changes in civic participation patterns. Putnam argued that despite rapid increases in higher education opportunities that may foster civic engagement, Americans were dropping out of political and organized community life. A number of studies suggested that while more youth are volunteering, fewer are voting or becoming politically engaged.


title: Civic engagement

text: The State of the World's Volunteerism Report 2015, the first global review of the power of volunteer voices to help improve the way people are governed, draws on evidence from countries as diverse as Brazil, Kenya, Lebanon and Bangladesh. The United Nations report shows how ordinary people are volunteering their time, energies and skills to improve the way they are governed and engaged at local, national and global levels. Better governance at every level is a pre-requisite for the success of the new set of targets for future international development, the Sustainable Development Goals, which has been agreed upon by the United Nations in September 2015.


title: Civic engagement

text: At the global level, for instance, a diverse group of 37 online volunteers from across the globe engaged in 4 months of intense collaboration with the United Nations Department of Economic Affairs (UN DESA) to process 386 research surveys carried out across 193 UN Member States for the 2014 UN E-Government Survey. The diversity of nationalities and languages of the online volunteers—more than 65 languages, 15 nationalities, of which half are from developing countries—mirrors the mission of the survey.


title: Civic engagement

text: Civic engagement, in general, can foster community participation and government involvement, according to "ICMA: Leaders at the Core of Better Communities".


title: Civic engagement

text: While there are benefits to civic engagement, there are challenges to be considered. These challenges include the various factors the ICMA describes. For example, distrust, role clarification, and time all play a role in challenges of civic engagement:


title: Civic engagement

text: Within local communities, there are many opportunities for citizens to participate in civic engagement. Volunteering personal time to community projects is widely believed to support the growth of a community as a whole. Community engagement could be found at food pantries, community clean-up programs, and the like, bolstering efforts for a strong community bond.


title: Civic engagement

text: Community collaboration includes democratic spaces where people are open to discussing concerns for particular issues regarding public interest and means to make the changes necessary. These spaces are often resource centers, such as neighborhood associations or school boards where citizens can obtain information regarding the community (upcoming changes, proposed solutions to existing problems, etc.). Colleges and universities are also offering more opportunities and expecting more students to engage in community volunteer work.


title: Civic engagement

text: According to a case study conducted in a U.S college in September 2014, there are pivotal leadership qualities that contribute to the development of civic engagement. The study mentions 3 main themes: active, adaptive, and resilient leadership, learning for leadership and engagement for the greater good as the main reasons for the success of The Democracy Commitment (TDC) in the college. TDC is a national initiative that intends to help U.S community colleges educate their students for democracy.


title: Civic engagement

text: Political participation is another key element that is practiced with regularity. Involvement in public council meeting sessions for discussions informs citizens of necessities and changes that need to be made. Casting an informed vote at the local level can change many things that affect day-to-day life.


title: Civic engagement

text: Online engagement allows citizens to be involved in their local government that they would not have otherwise by allowing them to voice themselves from the comfort of their own homes. Online engagement involves things such as online voting and public discussion forums that give citizens the opportunity to voice their opinions on topics and offer solutions as well as find others with common interests and create the possibility of forming advocacy groups pertaining to particular interests. The use of the internet has allowed people to have access to information easily and has resulted in a better-informed public as well as creating a new sense of community for citizens.


title: Civic engagement

text: People who serve state governments learn what the community needs through listening to citizens and thus make nuanced decisions. According to Miriam Porter, "turmoil, suspicion, and reduction of public trust" occur with the lack of communication. Civic engagement has an interrelated relationship within the various entities of the state.Values, knowledge, liberties, skills, ideas, attitudes, and beliefs the population holds are essential to civic engagement in terms of the representation of vast cultural, social, and economic identities.


title: Civic engagement

text: Civic engagement applied within the state requires local civic engagement. Citizens are the basis of representative democracy. Application of this principle can be found within programs and laws that states have implemented based on a variety of areas concerning that particular state. Health, education, equality, immigration are a few examples of entities that civic engagement can shape within a state.


title: Civic engagement

text: States implement public health programs to better benefit the needs of the society. The State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), for example, is the largest public investment in child health care aiding over 11 million uninsured children in the United States. "This statewide health insurance program for low-income children was associated with improved access, utilization, and quality of care, suggesting that SCHIP has the potential to improve health care for low-income American children". States take part in the program and sculpt it to better fit the needs of that state's demographics, making their healthcare and the civic engagement process of individuals that take part in the program as well help reform and fix it apart of the state's identity.


title: Civic engagement

text: States practicing public involvement and implementing public health programs to better benefit the needs of the society is a concept that is shared by other countries, such as England. A study conducted by Department of Primary Care, University of Liverpool, the Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol, the Department of Geography and Geology, McMaster Institute of Environment and Health, McMaster University, Avon Health Authority, the School of Journalism, Tom Hopkinson Centre for Media Research, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University, and the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, McMaster University stated that "There are a number of impulses towards public participation in health care decision making including instrumentalist, communitarian, educative and expressive impulses and the desire for increased accountability".


title: Civic engagement

text: Their research included a critical examination of the degree of involvement by the public in healthcare decision making. It is suggested that "public participation in decision making can promote goals, bind individuals or groups together, impart a sense of competence and responsibility and help express political or civic identity". The action of the citizens aimed at influencing decisions of representatives ultimately affects the state as a whole. Voting is a key component in civic engagement for the voice of the masses to be heard.


title: Civic engagement

text: The goal for state government in elections is to promote civic engagement. Director Regina Lawrence of Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life states "Politics and all other forms of engagement are really about trying to make your community, your state, and your nation a better place to live." Voter Turnout ensures civic engagement among the state with incentives that promises volunteer organizations, charity, and political involvement with everyone in the community who will have a voice to be heard.


title: Civic engagement

text: The state can help promote civic engagement by ensuring fair voter and redistricting processes; by building partnerships among government agencies, non-profit organizations, and private citizens; and by maintaining networks of information about volunteer and charitable opportunities.


title: Civic engagement

text: One of the main factors that determine civic engagement among the people is voter turnout. Voter turnout gauges citizens' level of political involvement, an important component of civic engagement—and a prerequisite for maintaining public accountability.


title: Civic engagement

text: Marginalized is defined as "to put or keep (someone) in a powerless or unimportant position within a society or group" according to Merriam-Webster. In diverse communities it is perceived that awareness and participation according to a study, using three different types of community service for the interaction between diverse individuals and understanding each other's perspective and enhancing relationships within the community. In addition, specifically black youth, there is an underlying gap of early civic education where there is lack of and where it thrives. According to Hope and Jagers, they studied civic engagement among black youth using data acquired from the Youth Culture Survey from the Black Youth Project. The assumption is that black youth who experience racial discrimination are fueled to be aware and participate in politics.


title: Civic engagement

text: Another study by Chan describes the effect of the association of development and environmental factors among a group of at-risk youth such as African-Americans and Latino participants who come from low-income families that dwell in inner-city neighborhoods. Their research resulted in variations according to their participants as the racial minority youth were motivated and had aspiring goals for their futures due to early participation in civic engagement activities, but there was no sufficient evidence that this type of mindset will follow them into their adulthood. Looking into another oppressed group, Latinos, according to this report in the "New York Times", states the number of Hispanics eligible to vote increased to an estimate of 10 million between 2000 and 2012, but there is a lack of taking an active approach toward dealing with the issues such as immigration and causing a stir within the Latino community. The Hispanic demographic is becoming a potential influence of power within political polls. To expand on another group that is oppressed is immigrant parents and their children in Jensen's study their concentration is on Asia and Latin America. In its study. they sampled a small group from a metropolitan area, the difference between both generations varies as the children who were in high school which is 87.5% were stated to be civically engaged. The parents were not civically engaged in issues but developed "bicultural consciousness" such as sending money back to their original country of origin and these participants saw it as their duty in their current state of opportunity to be civically engaged.


title: Civic engagement

text: Social capital has been on the decline for years and Putnam looked into why this is. One of the areas the study covered was television and its effects on social and civic engagements. Shah writes that Putnam found the more TV a person watches, the less they are active in outside activities. This is shown with the rise of TV in the 1960s and the fall of civic engagements. They found that though news and educational programming can actually aide in a citizen's knowledge, but the lack of engaging in outside activities and social events hurts civic engagement in general.


title: Civic engagement

text: Nowadays, the internet has become the main social media outlet. Xenos and Moy found that the internet does help civic engagement but also give "unjustifiable euphoria, abrupt and equally unjustifiable skepticism, and gradual realization that web-based human interaction really does have unique and politically significant properties". We have all the information we want about and candidate at our fingertips, and the wealth of information is creating a more informed body. But with this comes misinformation and the two collide and do the opposite, creating a public with clashing opinions.


title: Civic engagement

text: In relation to civic engagement and television use, there has been a push for civic engagement from television providers themselves. On September 22, 2020, WarnerMedia launched a nonpartisan voter engagement resource center, with the hopes of giving more citizens the access to vote and better understanding on how to do so.


title: Civic engagement

text: The Knight Foundation outlines four different ways technology can assist in civic engagement. The four different ways include upgrading and providing e-services, making information more transparent, allowing e-democracy, and a service they call co-production. E-services would allow digital technologies to improve the efficiency of urban services within a city. This would allow the services to become more effective as well as give the public a way to get involved. E-democracy and co-production would work by allowing citizens to shape public policy by allowing them to partake in actions through technology. The Knight Foundation claims technology can make information more transparent, allowing the public to access the information and get involved.


title: Civic engagement

text: Social entrepreneurship has seen a major increase in activity in recent years. One example can be seen from Eric Gordon and Jessica Philippi, who released a study on their interactive online game for local engagement called Community PlanIt (CPI). The purpose of CPI is to improve civic engagement qualitatively, rather than focusing on increasing the number of citizens getting involved. The study concluded that CPI encourages reflective attitudes and mediates relationships of trust that are needed for functional and continued civic engagement.


title: Civic engagement

text: There are handfuls of studies and journals that focus on the impact that social media has on civic engagement. In a study mentioned in a later section on civic engagement around the world, interviewees from Norway “generally use Facebook to invite people to some form of face-to-face meeting at the beginning of a community engagement - and to facilitate the ongoing engagement of participants”. Additional research demonstrates the capabilities of Facebook and other social networks in their enablement of civic participation. In Asia, a study was conducted focusing on the impact that the rise of Internet communication had on social capital. This study concluded that, while the Internet’s role is to provide citizens with more opportunities to contact each other, it does not play a role in increasing different measures of social capital such as trust. Furthermore, the study concluded that “social capital developed through voluntary participation in social organization has the greatest effectiveness in promoting all sorts of civic engagement".


title: Civic engagement

text: Efficiency and trust are observed to be the two main logics to effectively improve the effectiveness of the practical application of citizen technology in government projects. Communities can build consensus by reinforcing these two factors, reducing people's antipathy to public officials and social programs without removing legitimate skepticism, and reducing the distance that information barriers create when transmitting data. The confidentiality and security of civic technologies are factors in determining whether online public conversations are supported and popularized by the public.


title: Civic engagement

text: Local technology has three levels of transformation and dynamic models, from information to participation and empowerment. Web portals, social media platforms, and mobile apps are effective models for reaching a wide range of audiences; Electronic monitoring and management, service efficiency improvement, and business training help ensure increased participation and smooth operation. Open and transparent feedback and data release are factors that encourage future engagement and data accuracy. Completion of this series of information transmission and summary promotes the improvement of the future civic participation model. Future government programs will be citizen-oriented, information-technology-themed, and measured by efficiency and clarity. Besides, citizen audit provides grassroots organizers with a more durable and stable cooperative structure and strategic shift. It is a method to test the effectiveness of policies and get feedback from citizens, and it can effectively point out deficiencies in current policies and systems.


title: Civic engagement

text: First, there is Norway with a study on “Local Newspapers, Facebook and Local Civic Engagement” by Malene Paulsen Lie. The study aimed to “[investigate] how a selection of the inhabitants of two Norwegian communities make use of the local press and Facebook…” and concluded that “both Facebook and the local press play important roles in civic engagement”, illustrating the various mediums that citizens utilize. When looking at the demographics of each medium, this study also saw that the younger demographic strayed from local newspapers and preferred national or international news, while the older demographic prioritized the local newspaper.


title: Civic engagement

text: In Poland, social media plays an important role in the level of civic engagement for mayoral elections. A study concluded that “successful engagement in social media accounts is also higher when the mayor operates in an active social media environment”.


title: Civic engagement

text: In Australia, a study was conducted, recognizing various forms of civic engagement such as “social protest and collective action, and specific organizations dedicated to lobbying and advocacy”. The study goes on to say that governments in Australia generally prefer to initiate processes of consultation of their own choosing rather than being perceived to be consulting only in response to pressure and social protest”.


title: Civic engagement

text: In South East Asia, a study was conducted focusing on civic engagement within mental health services, more specifically in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). In these countries, the study concluded that Civic Engagement interventions can be successfully implemented yet Western models should be adapted in order to better fit with local cultures and values. Furthermore, the communities in these LMICs that face armed conflict, natural disasters, or political suppression find community cohesion to be a common outcome of civic engagement initiatives. Focusing on the mental health impact, civic engagement allowed citizens to develop a better understanding of the problems and equip themselves with the necessary skills to meet the needs of their local mental health problems. The study refers to the 2004 Asian Tsunami crisis, where “trusted community volunteers played a key role in the delivery of much needed mental health services”.


title: Civic engagement

text: In China, participatory budgeting experiments, an example of civic empowerment including all members of society, promote a degree of transparency and fairness, as a vast majority of the budgeting takes place at local levels and smaller villages (He). In the next decade, China and the NPC plans to implement more participatory budgeting experiments and an increased amount of participation from citizens. However, the empowerment of local People’s Congresses will remain constrained by the caution of the central leaders and resistance from local governments. In this same way, the government will remain controlling over citizen empowerment.


title: Civic engagement

text: There are countries, like Romania, where the new technologies started to influence civic participation in the last years. New media is becoming a factor in increasing civic mobilization for the new generations. New studies about that, at Center for Civic Participation and Democracy from SNSPA. Center for Civic Participation and Democracy (CPD) is a unit of research, analysis, and evaluation of citizen participation in the democratic process, both at the national and European level. Created at the National School of Political Science and Public Administration, CPD brings together experts in areas such as political science, sociology, administrative sciences, communications, international relations, and European studies, and it objectifies the SNSPA role and status of the school of governance. It is run by Remus Pricopie and Dan Sultanescu.


title: Civic engagement

text: It can be argued that a fundamental step in creating a functioning society begins with the civic education of children within the community. According to Diann Cameron Kelly, "When our young children serve their communities through volunteerism, political participation or through vocal activism, they are more likely to emerge...voting and serving all aspects of society". Kelly argues that children should be taught how their community works and who chooses the rules we live by even before they enter school. Other voices maintain that civic education is a lifelong process, even for those who make decisions on behalf of the citizens they serve.


title: Civic engagement

text: To answer this challenge, the incorporation of service-learning into collegiate course design has gained acceptance as a pedagogy that links curricular content with civic education. In a recent study, students who participated in service learning even one time appear to have made gains in knowledge of and commitment to civic engagement when compared to non-service learners. Campus Compact, a coalition of nearly 1200 college presidents (as of 2013) promotes the development of citizenship skills by creating community partnerships and providing resources to train faculty to integrate civic and community-based learning into the curriculum. Building on the acceptance of service learning and civic engagement in higher education, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement in Teaching created the Political Engagement Project in 2003 to develop the political knowledge and skills of college-aged students. The American Democracy Project (ADP) was launched in the same year by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). The American Democracy Project was joined by the American Democracy Commitment, a partnership of community colleges, to sponsor an annual national conference focused on higher education's role in preparing the next generation of informed, engaged citizens. The American Democracy Project also sponsors campus-based initiatives including voter registration, curriculum revision projects, and special days of action and reflection, such as the MLK Day of Service. In a report entitled," A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy's Future "issued in 2012 by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, a joint project of the U.S. Department of Education and the American Association of Colleges and Universities, the authors argue that higher education must serve as an intellectual incubator and socially responsible partner in advancing civic learning and democratic engagement.


title: Civic engagement

text: These higher education-based initiatives endeavor to build in college students, a politically engaged identity while enhancing the capacity to evaluate the political landscape and make informed decisions about participation in our democracy. As evidenced by the growth in coalitions, professional development opportunities and civic education research, institutions of higher education and their association partners are committed to help prepare the next generation of citizens to become tomorrow's "Stewards of Place".


title: Civic engagement

text: Many universities, like the University of Minnesota, have begun to focus on increasing the civic engagement of students and have mandated that educators begin incorporating it into several school activities. Edwin Fogelman, author of "Civic Engagement at the University of Minnesota," states that true civic engagement can only be practiced by those living within a Democracy. According to Fogelman, civic engagement is largely shaped by schools. Education institutions have the skills to foster "civic competence, critical thinking, and Public Spirit, which empower citizens to become engaged". Many claim that civic engagement ought to become part of the curriculum and that higher education institutions should provide opportunities to become engaged such as internships, service-learning, and community based activities. Institutions also need to provide outlets where students can have open discussions over concerns and controversial issues.


title: Civic engagement

text: Some schools, such as Widener University, have made civic engagement a core goal of the university. The university strives to get students involved in the local community to become more aware and civically engaged. (Civic Engagement And Service Learning In A Metropolitan University: Multiple Approaches And Perspectives).


title: Civic engagement

text: In January 2012, the U.S. Department of Education issued a road map titled "Advancing Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy " that offers nine steps to enhancing the Department of Education's commitment to civic learning and engagement in democracy.


title: Civic engagement

text: Civic learning, however, also has its challenges. From W. Lance Bennett’s "Young Citizens and New Media", the challenge of civic education and learning is the integration and adaptation to the more contemporary attitude toward politics, which revolves more around the quality of personal life, social recognition, and self esteem.


title: Civic engagement

text: Youth participation has a critical impact on four aspects: democratic decision-making, community cohesion, equity, and personal development of youth themselves. Domestic and transnational educational cooperation is conducive to sharing and promoting the transmission and popularization of information and may achieve the effect of promoting social advancement and improving the living conditions of citizens and the environment. Public services and programs contribute to the mental development of rebellious and vulnerable youth groups and change government patterns in the future, as they mobilize the participation of the next generation of citizens. These educational programs aim to apply social science and psychology to stimulate the enthusiasm of the youth community to participate in government projects, thereby promoting the sustainable development of society.


title: Civic engagement

text: The design of such government projects remains neutral and open. It remains controversial whether the government has the right to guide teenagers to accept education of this nature. Experts suggest first identifying topics students value, followed by selecting a topic to discuss concrete actions and short-term goals that can be implemented and concluding with feedback and a summary. Teachers are encouraged to validate students' ideas and avoid bringing personal opinions and political stances into the classrooms.


title: Civic engagement

text: The general attitude of college students towards online civic responsibility, engagement, learning, and expression is positive. The government may consider the option of strengthening the sense of autonomy of college students in performing their civic duties in reducing the inequalities that currently exist in the K-12 education system. As part of the education system, college students may create accessible participation platforms for vulnerable groups and more through their educational resources or to speak for these groups through community visits and in-depth conversations.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: In order to call abroad, users need to dial 00 before the country code. For instance, to call Vancouver, Canada, from Kyiv, users dial 00 1 604 xxx xxxx.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: Calling nationwide requires dialing 0 and then the region code followed by the local number. For instance, to call Kyiv from Odesa, users dial 0 44 xxx xxxx. The same convention was adopted for mobile operators.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: For local calls, users can still dial the local number without a 0 and the area code. Mobile users must dial the full 0-prefixed number, although operators may implement local dialing in cities.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: The in-country sequence for ordinary zones consists of a 2-digit zone code, an optional subzone code (never used for the capital of the geographic region corresponding to a phone zone), an optional filler (0 to 2 "2"s, used to make the whole in-country sequence contain exactly 9 digits) and the local phone number (5 to 7 digits). When dialing from cell phones, the in-country dial sequence (with the 0 XX prefix) is used even for phones of the same provider. Otherwise a call may be placed in the nearest geographic area.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: Area codes correspond to geographic regions ("oblasts") with exception of Kyiv and formerly Sevastopol which utilize their own area code. See Area codes in Ukraine for current list.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: Cell phone numbers can be assigned both within the cell phone provider zone and within a geographic zone. The latter arrangement is used mainly for CDMA phones and for GSM operators selling their connectivity within one city, like GoldenTelecom GSM. Allocation of new GSM cell phone numbers within a geographic zone is very rare now because law requires all incoming calls to be free, including incoming calls to a cell phone.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: Some mobile operators may support additional dialing plans. For example, Kyivstar also supports the following:


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: Note that law explicitly prohibits trunk calls to a PSTN phone within the same local area in a geographic phone zone (e.g. from Kyiv to Kyiv), so one cannot dial 0~2 or 0~xx for this, unless the phone exchange is misconfigured or a special circumstance occurs.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: The switch to a closed numbering plan, which will introduce seven digit-long numbers for all zones, should be complete in 2011-2012.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: Notice, that when using older non-digital extensions for the inter-city, international calls as well as the calls made to the national mobile and sip-numbers, it may be necessary to wait for a continuous dial tone after the first 0. This applies to the old-style rotary phones (as opposed to modern digital dial phones). For example, to call a Chernihiv local landline number from Kyiv, one needs to dial 0, wait for a dial tone, then dial 46 (Chernivtsi regional code) and then dial the local number in that city. Similarly, when calling Vancouver, Canada, one needs to dial 0, wait for the dial tone, dial another 0 to access international line, then dial 1 (for Canada and the USA), followed by 778 (one of the area codes for British Columbia), followed by the 7-digit local number.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: Due to the last digit of the country code (+380) being identical to the trunk prefix (0), international format numbers are often mistakenly presented as +38 0..., e.g. as in the (fictional) Kyiv number +38 044 555 1234, because people tend to mistakenly think that the last digit of the country code and the trunk prefix are the same number just being swapped around. +38 belonged to Yugoslavia before its disintegration in the early 1990s, and the +38 code was broken up and distributed amongst the former republics. +380 went to Ukraine, which previously used the +7 code.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: Ukraine (similarly to most of ex-Soviet Union countries) used to have a four-level (local, zone, country, international) open dialing plan. For all non-local numbers, the required trunk prefix was '8' followed by an auxiliary dial tone after it (optional on digital exchanges), with the following '2' for in-zone calls, followed by an area code, and '10' for international calls.


title: Telephone numbers in Ukraine

text: Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Russian-backed separatist regions of the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kherson people's republics have been issued with the Russian telephone code (+7).


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: A nuclear bunker buster, also known as an earth-penetrating weapon (EPW), is the nuclear equivalent of the conventional bunker buster. The non-nuclear component of the weapon is designed to penetrate soil, rock, or concrete to deliver a nuclear warhead to an underground target. These weapons would be used to destroy hardened, underground military bunkers or other below-ground facilities. An underground explosion releases a larger fraction of its energy into the ground, compared to a surface burst or air burst explosion at or above the surface, and so can destroy an underground target using a lower explosive yield. This in turn could lead to a reduced amount of radioactive fallout. However, it is unlikely that the explosion would be completely contained underground. As a result, significant amounts of rock and soil would be rendered radioactive and lofted as dust or vapor into the atmosphere, generating significant fallout.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: While conventional bunker busters use several methods to penetrate concrete structures, these are for the purpose of destroying the structure directly, and are generally limited in how much of a bunker (or system of bunkers) they can destroy by depth and their relatively low explosive force (versus nuclear weapons).


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: The primary difference between conventional and nuclear bunker busters is that, while the conventional version is meant for one target, the nuclear version can destroy an entire underground bunker system.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: The main principles in modern bunker design are largely centered around survivability in nuclear war. As a result of this both American and Soviet sites reached a state of "super hardening", involving defenses against the effects of a nuclear weapon such as spring- or counterweight-mounted (in the case of the R-36) control capsules and thick concrete walls ( for the Minuteman ICBM launch control capsule) heavily reinforced with rebar. These systems were designed to survive a near miss of 20 megatons.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Liquid-fueled missiles such as those historically used by Russia are more fragile and easily damaged than solid-fueled missiles such as those used by the United States. The complex fuel storage facilities and equipment needed to fuel missiles for launch and de-fuel them for frequent maintenance add additional weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Therefore, a similar degree of silo "hardening" does not automatically equate to a similar level of missile "survivability".


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Major advancements in the accuracy and precision of nuclear and conventional weapons subsequent to the invention of the missile silo itself have also rendered many "hardening" technologies useless. With modern weapons capable of striking within feet (meters) of their intended targets, a modern "near miss" can be much more effective than a "hit" decades ago. A weapon need only cover the silo door with sufficient debris to prevent its immediate opening to render the missile inside useless for its intended mission of rapid strike or counter-strike deployment.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: A nuclear bunker buster negates most of the countermeasures involved in the protection of underground bunkers by penetrating the defenses prior to detonating. A relatively low yield may be able to produce seismic forces beyond those of an air burst or even ground burst of a weapon with twice its yield. Additionally, the weapon has the ability to impart more severe horizontal shock waves than many bunker systems are designed to combat by detonating at or near the bunker's depth, rather than above it.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Geologic factors also play a major role in weapon effectiveness and facility survivability. Locating facilities in hard rock may appear to reduce the effectiveness of bunker-buster type weapons by decreasing penetration, but the hard rock also transmits shock forces to a far higher degree than softer soil types. The difficulties of drilling into and constructing facilities within hard rock also increase construction time and expense, as well as making it more likely construction will be discovered and new sites targeted by foreign militaries.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Concrete structure design has not changed significantly in the last 70 years. The majority of protected concrete structures in the U.S. military are derived from standards set forth in "Fundamentals of Protective Design", published in 1946 (US Army Corps of Engineers). Various augmentations, such as glass, fibers, and rebar, have made concrete less vulnerable, but far from impenetrable.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: When explosive force is applied to concrete, three major fracture regions are usually formed: the initial crater, a crushed aggregate surrounding the crater, and "scabbing" on the surface opposite the crater. Scabbing, also known as spalling, is the violent separation of a mass of material from the opposite face of a plate or slab subjected to an impact or impulsive loading, without necessarily requiring that the barrier itself be penetrated.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: While soil is a less dense material, it also does not transmit shock waves as well as concrete. So while a penetrator may actually travel further through soil, its effect may be lessened due to its inability to transmit shock to the target.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Further thinking on the subject envisions a hardened penetrator using kinetic energy to defeat the target's defenses and subsequently deliver a nuclear explosive to the buried target.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: The primary difficulty facing the designers of such a penetrator is the tremendous heat applied to the penetrator unit when striking the shielding (surface) at hundreds of meters per second. This has partially been solved by using metals such as tungsten (the metal with the highest melting point), and altering the shape of the projectile (such as an ogive).


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Altering the shape of the projectile to incorporate an ogive shape has yielded substantial improvement in penetration ability. Rocket sled testing at Eglin Air Force Base has demonstrated penetrations of in concrete when traveling at . The reason for this is liquefaction of the concrete in the target, which tends to flow over the projectile. Variation in the speed of the penetrator can either cause it to be vaporized on impact (in the case of traveling too fast), or to not penetrate far enough (in the case of traveling too slowly). An approximation for the penetration depth is obtained with an impact depth formula derived by Sir Isaac Newton.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Another school of thought on nuclear bunker busters is using a light penetrator to travel 15 to 30 meters through shielding, and detonate a nuclear charge there. Such an explosion would generate powerful shock waves, which would be transmitted very effectively through the solid material comprising the shielding (see "scabbing" above).


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: The main criticisms of nuclear bunker busters regard fallout and nuclear proliferation. The purpose of an earth-penetrating nuclear bunker buster is to reduce the required yield needed to ensure the destruction of the target by coupling the explosion to the ground, yielding a shock wave similar to an earthquake. For example, the United States retired the B-53 warhead, with a yield of nine megatons, because the B-61 Mod 11 could attack similar targets with much lower yield (400 kilotons), due to the latter's superior ground penetration. By burying itself into the ground before detonation, a much higher proportion of the explosion energy is transferred to seismic shock when compared to the surface burst produced from the B-53's laydown delivery. Moreover, the globally dispersed fallout of an underground B-61 Mod 11 would likely be less than that of a surface burst B-53. Supporters note that this is one of the reasons nuclear bunker busters should be developed. Critics claim that developing new nuclear weapons sends a proliferating message to non-nuclear powers, undermining non-proliferation efforts.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Critics also worry that the existence of lower-yield nuclear weapons for relatively limited tactical purposes will lower the threshold for their actual use, thus blurring the sharp line between conventional weapons intended for use and weapons of mass destruction intended only for hypothetical deterrence, and increasing the risk of escalation to higher-yield nuclear weapons.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Local fallout from any nuclear detonation is increased with proximity to the ground. While a megaton-class yield surface burst will inevitably throw up many tons of (newly) radioactive debris, which falls back to the earth as fallout, critics contend that despite their relatively minuscule explosive yield, nuclear bunker busters create more local fallout per kiloton yield. Also, because of the subsurface detonation, radioactive debris may contaminate the local groundwater.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: The Union of Concerned Scientists advocacy group points out that at the Nevada Test Site, the depth required to contain fallout from an average-yield underground nuclear test was over 100 meters, depending upon the weapon's yield. They contend that it is improbable that penetrators could be made to burrow so deeply. With yields between 0.3 and 340 kilotons, they argue, it is unlikely the blast would be completely contained.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Critics further state that the testing of new nuclear weapons would be prohibited by the proposed Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Although Congress refused to ratify the CTBT in 1999, and therefore this treaty has no legal force in the US, the US has adhered to the spirit of the treaty by maintaining a moratorium on nuclear testing since 1992.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Proponents, however, contend that lower explosive yield devices and subsurface bursts would produce little to no climatic effects in the event of a nuclear war, in contrast to multi-megaton air and surface bursts (that is, if the nuclear winter hypothesis proves accurate). Lower fuzing heights, which would result from partially buried warheads, would limit or completely obstruct the range of the burning thermal rays of a nuclear detonation, therefore limiting the target, and its surroundings, to a fire hazard by reducing the range of thermal radiation with fuzing for subsurface bursts. Professors Altfeld and Cimbala have suggested that belief in the possibility of nuclear winter has actually made nuclear war more likely, contrary to the views of Carl Sagan and others, because it has inspired the development of more accurate, and lower explosive yield, nuclear weapons.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: As early as 1944, the Barnes Wallis Tallboy bomb and subsequent Grand Slam weapons were designed to penetrate deeply fortified structures through sheer explosive power. These were not designed to directly penetrate defences, though they could do this (for example, the Valentin submarine pens had ferrous concrete roofs thick which were penetrated by two Grand Slams on 27 March 1945), but rather to penetrate under the target and explode leaving a camouflet (cavern) which would undermine foundations of structures above, causing it to collapse, thus negating any possible hardening. The destruction of targets such as the V3 battery at Mimoyecques was the first operational use of the Tallboy. One bored through a hillside and exploded in the Saumur rail tunnel about below, completely blocking it, and showing that these weapons could destroy any hardened or deeply excavated installation. Modern targeting techniques allied with multiple strikes could perform a similar task.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Development continued, with weapons such as the nuclear B61, and conventional thermobaric weapons and GBU-28. One of the more effective housings, the GBU-28 used its large mass () and casing (constructed from barrels of surplus 203 mm howitzers) to penetrate of concrete, and more than of earth. The B61 Mod 11, which first entered military service after the Cold war had ended, in January 1997, was specifically developed to allow for bunker penetration, and is speculated to have the ability to destroy hardened targets a few hundred feet beneath the earth.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: While penetrations of were sufficient for some shallow targets, both the Soviet Union and the United States were creating bunkers buried under huge volumes of soil or reinforced concrete in order to withstand the multi-megaton thermonuclear weapons developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Bunker penetration weapons were initially designed within this Cold War context. One likely Soviet Union/Russian target, Mount Yamantau, was regarded in the 1990s by Maryland Republican congressman, Roscoe Bartlett, as capable of surviving "half a dozen"(6) repeated nuclear strikes of an unspecified yield, one after the other in a "direct hole".


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: The Russian continuity of government facility at Kosvinsky Mountain, finished in early 1996, was designed to resist US earth-penetrating warheads and serves a similar role as the American Cheyenne Mountain Complex. The timing of the Kosvinsky completion date is regarded as one explanation for US interest in a new nuclear bunker buster and the declaration of the deployment of the B-61 mod 11 in 1997, Kosvinsky is protected by about 300 meters (1000 feet) of granite.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: The weapon was revisited after the Cold War during the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, and again during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. During the campaign in Tora Bora in particular, the United States believed that "vast underground complexes," deeply buried, were protecting opposing forces. Such complexes were not found. While a nuclear penetrator (the "Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator", or "RNEP") was never built, the U.S. DOE was allotted budget to develop it, and tests were conducted by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The RNEP was to use the 1.2 megaton B83 physics package.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: The Bush administration removed its request for funding of the weapon in October 2005. Additionally, then U.S. Senator Pete Domenici announced funding for the nuclear bunker-buster has been dropped from the U.S. Department of Energy's 2006 budget at the department's request.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: While the project for the RNEP seems to be in fact canceled, Jane's Information Group speculated in 2005 that work might continue under another name.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: A more recent development (c. 2012) is the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 13,5 tonne (30000-pound) conventional gravity bomb. The USAF's B-2 Spirit bombers can each carry two such weapons.


title: Nuclear bunker buster

text: Note that with the exception of strictly earth penetrating weapons, others were designed with air burst capability and some were depth charges as well.


title: Spitball

text: A spitball is an illegal baseball pitch in which the ball has been altered by the application of a foreign substance such as saliva or petroleum jelly. This technique alters the wind resistance and weight on one side of the ball, causing it to move in an atypical manner. It may also cause the ball to "slip" out of the pitcher's fingers without the usual spin that accompanies a pitch. In this sense, a spitball can be thought of as a fastball with knuckleball action. Alternative names for the spitball are "spitter", "mud ball", "shine ball", "supersinker", or "vaseline ball" (because originally, Vaseline was used to give the ball a little more break). A spitball technically differs from an emery ball, in which the surface of the ball is cut or abraded. Saliva or Vaseline smooths the baseball, while the emery paper roughens it. The general term for altering the ball in any way is "doctoring".


title: Spitball

text: The invention of the spitball has been popularly credited to a number of individuals, among them Elmer Stricklett and Frank Corridon. Numerous accounts, however, refer to different players experimenting with versions of the spitball throughout the latter half of the 19th century, and it remains unlikely that any one individual "invented" the spitball.


title: Spitball

text: Ed Walsh, however, is certainly responsible for popularizing it. Walsh dominated the American League from 1906 to 1912, primarily on the strength of his spitball, and pitchers around the league soon copied his spitball or invented their own trick pitch.


title: Spitball

text: The dramatic increase in the popularity of "freak deliveries" led to a great deal of controversy throughout the 1910s regarding the abolition of the spitball and related pitches. In his autobiography, Ty Cobb wrote that such "freak pitches [...] were outlawed when the owners greedily sold out to home runs."


title: Spitball

text: In addition, there were serious issues with the spitball, including some that affected safety. A variation on the standard spitball called for the pitcher to smear the entire surface of the normally white ball with a mixture of tobacco spittle and dirt or mud in order to stain it the same deep brown color as the infield which made it nearly impossible for batters to see (and sometimes avoid) in low-light conditions. In August 1920, Ray Chapman was killed when he was struck in the temple by a pitch thrown by known spitball pitcher Carl Mays during a poorly lit game.


title: Spitball

text: In Major League Baseball (MLB), the spitball was banned in two stages. In the winter of 1919–1920, managers voted to partially ban the spitball. Each team was allowed to designate up to two pitchers who would be permitted to throw spitballs. After the 1920 season, the use of the spitball was banned with the exception of a group of 17 existing spitballers, who became legacy spitballers and allowed to throw the pitch legally until they retired.


title: Spitball

text: Of the exempted group, Burleigh Grimes lasted the longest, retiring in 1934. The complete list of exempted spitballers is: Ray Fisher (played through 1920); Doc Ayers (1921); Ray Caldwell (1921); Phil Douglas (1922); Dana Fillingim (1925); Marv Goodwin (1925); Dutch Leonard (1925); Allen Russell (1925); Allen Sothoron (1926); Dick Rudolph (1927); Stan Coveleski (1928); Urban Shocker (1928); Bill Doak (1929); Clarence Mitchell (1932); Red Faber (1933); Jack Quinn (1933); and Grimes.


title: Spitball

text: In March 1955, MLB Commissioner Ford Frick advocated for the return of the spitball, telling a sportswriter, "If I had my way, I'd legalize the old spitter. It was a great pitch and one of the easiest to throw. There was nothing dangerous about it." Despite the Commissioner's enthusiasm, the pitch remained illegal.


title: Spitball

text: The spitball is now banned in Major League baseball. It is a pitching violation in NCAA Baseball. However, it is still sometimes thrown in violation of the rules. In 1942, Leo Durocher, then-manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, fined Bobo Newsom for throwing a spitball and "lying to me about it." Typically, a lubricant is hidden behind the pitcher's knee or under the peak of his cap. Others will place the ball in their mitt and then cough on or lick it. Another tactic pitchers use is to soak their hair in water before going out to the mound, and then rub their hair before a pitch.


title: Spitball

text: Preacher Roe, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s, was renowned both for his ability to control the spitball and to throw it without getting caught and described his methodology in a 1955 article in "Sports Illustrated". "The Outlawed Spitball Was My Money Pitch" was published a year after he retired. Another famous user of the pitch was Gaylord Perry, who went so far as to title his autobiography "Me and the Spitter" and chronicled the clever ways in which he avoided detection. For example, Perry would put Vaseline on his zipper because umpires would never check a player's groin. Don Drysdale also used the pitch regularly, as did Lew Burdette. Drysdale would apply oil to the back of his hair to put on the ball to make it sink. Mike Fiers has been accused of doctoring the baseball during both his no-hitters.


title: Spitball

text: The name dry spitter is sometimes used to describe a pitch that moves like a spitball without saliva, such as the forkball or split-finger fastball. It is sometimes used simply as slang for the knuckleball.


title: Spitball

text: There is also the remote term of God-given spitter, which is when the ball is naturally dampened by moist air or light rainfall, which allows pitchers to be able to throw pitches with sharper breaks, much like a spitball.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Maternal mortality refers to the death of a woman during her pregnancy or up to a year after her pregnancy has terminated; this metric only includes causes related to the pregnancy, and does not include accidental causes. Some sources will define maternal mortality as the death of a woman up to 42 days after the pregnancy has ended, instead of one year. In 1986, the CDC began tracking pregnancy related deaths to gather information and determine what was causing these deaths by creating the Pregnancy-Related Mortality Surveillance System. Although the United States was spending more on healthcare than any other country in the world, more than two women died during childbirth every day, making maternal mortality in the United States the highest when compared to 49 other countries in the developed world. The CDC reported an increase in the maternal mortality ratio in the United States from 18.8 deaths per 100,000 births to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 births between 2000 and 2014, a 26.6% increase. As of 2018, the US had an estimated 17.4 deaths per 100,000 live births. According to the CDC a study that included data from 36 states found that more than 80% of pregnancy related deaths were preventable between 2017-2019.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: In 1986, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) created the Pregnancy-Related Mortality Surveillance System to monitor maternal deaths during pregnancy and up to one year after giving birth. Prior to this, women were monitored up to 6 weeks postpartum.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: In 2016 the CDC Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) undertook a collaborative initiative—"Building U.S. Capacity to Review and Prevent Maternal Deaths"— funded by Merck under the Merck for Mothers program. They are reviewing maternal mortality to enhance understanding of the increase in the maternal mortality ratio in the United States, and to identify preventative interventions. Through this initiative, they have created the Review to Action website which hosts their reports and resources. In their 2017 report, four states, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, and Ohio, supported the development of the Maternal Mortality Review Data System (MMRDS) which was intended as a precursor to the Maternal Mortality Review Information Application (MMRIA). The three agencies have partnered with Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Utah to collect data for the Maternal Mortality Review Information Application (MMRIA); the nine states submitted their first reports in 2018.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: After decades of inaction on the part of the U.S. Congress towards reducing the maternal mortality ratio, the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations voted on June 28, 2018, to request $50 million to prevent the pregnancy-related deaths of American women. The CDC would receive $12 million for research and data collection. They would also support individual states in counting and reviewing data on maternal deaths. The federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau would receive the remaining $38 million directed towards Healthy Start program and "life saving, evidence-based programs" at hospitals. MCHB's Healthy Start was mandated to reduce the infant mortality rate.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: In the 1930s Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs), state and local committees that review pregnancy related deaths, formed in New York City and Philadelphia in response to high maternal mortality rates. Philadelphia saw success with reducing the rates through data collected from their MMRC and over the next two decades MMRCs popped up throughout the country. MMRCs have grown and shrunk in popularity since, but the CDC now recommends MMRC data as the gold standard for understanding the causes of maternal mortality and planning intervention.The reasoning is that MMRCs are uniquely poised to identify opportunities for action despite difficulties in classifying deaths as pregnancy-related.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: According to a 2016 article in "Obstetrics and Gynecology" by MacDorman et al., one factor affecting the US maternal death rate is the variability in the calculation of maternal deaths. The WHO deems maternal deaths to be those occurring within 42 days of the end of pregnancy, whereas the United States Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System measures maternal deaths as those occurring within a year of the end of pregnancy. Some states allow multiple responses, such as whether the death occurred during pregnancy, within 42 days after pregnancy, or within a year of pregnancy, but some states, such as California, ask simply whether the death occurred within a year postpartum.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: In their article, the authors described how data collection on maternal mortality rates became an "international embarrassment". In 2003 the national U.S. standard death certificate added a "tick box" question regarding the pregnancy status of the deceased. Many states delayed adopting the new death certificate standards. This "muddied" data and obstructed analysis of trends in maternal mortality rates. It also meant that for many years, the United States could not report a national maternal mortality rate to the OECD or other repositories that collect data internationally.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: In response to the MacDorman study, revealing the "inability, or unwillingness, of states and the federal government to track maternal deaths", ProPublica and NPR found that in 2016 alone, between 700 and 900 women died from pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes. In "Lost Mothers" they published stories of some of women who died, ranging from 16 to 43 years of age.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Healthy People is a federal organization that is managed by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In 2010, the US maternal mortality ratio was 12.7 (deaths per 100,000 live births). This was 3 times as high as the Healthy People 2010 goal, a national target set by the US government.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: According to a 2009 article in "Anthropology News", studies conducted by but not limited to Amnesty International, the United Nations, and federal programs such as the CDC, maternal mortality has not decreased since 1999 and may have been rising.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: By November 2017, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City had established committees to "review deaths and severe complications related to pregnancy and childbirth" in their cities to prevent maternal mortality. New York's panel, the Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee (M3RC), included doctors, nurses, "doulas, midwives and social workers". New York City will be collaborating with the State of New York, the first such collaboration in the US. In July 2018, New York City's de Blasio's administration announced that it would be allocating $12.8 million for the first three years of its five-year plan to "reduce maternal deaths and life-threatening complications of childbirth among women of color".


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Maternal death can be traced to maternal health, which includes wellness throughout the entire pregnancy and access to basic care.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: World Health Organization and the CDC's National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) define maternal death as that which occurs within the first 42 days after birth.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Since 1986, the Center for Disease Control conducts a Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance Service (PMSS) to study the medical causes of maternal death. This tool defines pregnancy-related death as death during or within 1 year of completion of a woman's pregnancy by any cause attributed to the pregnancy to capture all deaths which might be pregnancy-related.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Race, location, and financial status all contribute to how maternal mortality affects women across the country. Non-Hispanic blacks account for 41.7% of maternal deaths in the United States.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs), state and local committees that review pregnancy related deaths, found that the leading causes of maternal mortality from 36 participating states 2017-2019 are:


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Social determinants of health also contribute to the maternal mortality rate. Some of these factors include access to healthcare, education, age, race, and income.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Women in the US usually meet with their physicians just once after delivery, six weeks after giving birth. Due to this long gap during the postpartum period, many health problems remain unchecked, which can result in maternal death. Just as women, especially women of color, have difficulty with access to prenatal care, the same is true for accessibility to postpartum care. Postpartum depression can also lead to untimely deaths for both mother and child.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Maternal-fetal medicine does not require labor-delivery training in order to practice independently. The lack of experience can make certain doctors more likely to make mistakes or not pay close attention to certain symptoms that could indicate one of the several causes of death in mothers. For women who have limited access, these kinds of physicians may be easier to see than more experienced physicians. In addition, many doctors are unwilling to see patients who are pregnant if they are uninsured or unable to afford their co-pay, which restricts prenatal care and could prevent women from being aware of potential complications.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Insurance companies reserve the right to categorize pregnancy as a pre-existing condition, thereby making women ineligible for private health insurance. Even access to Medicaid is curtailed to some women, due to bureaucracy and delays in coverage (if approved). Many women are turned down due to Medicaid fees, as well. According to a 2020 study conducted by Erica L. Eliason, cutting Medicaid funding limits access to prenatal healthcare, which has been shown to increase maternal mortality rates. This study concluded that Medicaid expansions directly correlated to decreases in maternal mortality rates.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Although the supportive care practice of a doula has potential to improve the health of both the mother and child and reduce health disparities, these services are underutilized among low-income women and women of color, who are at greater risk of poor maternal health outcomes. Women may be unable to find or afford services or unaware that they are offered. A 2012 national survey by Childbirth Connection found that women using Medicaid to pay for birth expenses were twice as likely as those using private insurance to have never heard of a doula (36% vs. 19%). Medicaid does not cover doula care during a woman's prenatal or post-partum period. Women have also reported access and mobility as reasons why they are unable to seek prenatal care, such as lack of transportation and/or lack of health insurance. Women who do not have access to prenatal care are 3-4 times more likely to die during or after pregnancy than women who do.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: It has been shown that mothers between ages 18 and 44 who did not complete high school had a 5% increase in maternal mortality versus women who completed high school. By completing primary school, 10% of girls younger than 17 years old would not get pregnant and 2/3 of maternal deaths could be prevented. Secondary education, university schooling, would only further decrease rates of pregnancy and maternal death.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Of note, higher education still does not improve the racial differences in maternal mortality and is not protective for Black mothers in the way they are for White mothers. It has been found that Black mothers with a college education have greater maternal mortality than White mothers with less than a high school education.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Young adolescents are at the highest risk of fatal complications of any age group. This high risk can be accounted for by various causes such as the likelihood of adolescents giving birth for the first time compared to women in older age groups. Other factors that also may lead to higher risk among this age group includes lower economic status and education. While adolescents face a higher risk of maternal mortality, a study conducted between 2005 and 2014 found that the rate of maternal mortality was higher among older women. Additionally, another study found that the rate is higher specifically among women aged 30 years or older.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Intimate partner violence (IPV) constitutes many forms of abuse or the threat of abuse, including sexual, physical or emotional abuse and manifests as a pattern of violence from an intimate partner. Protective factors include age and marital status, while risk factors include unplanned pregnancy, lack of education and low socioeconomic status, and a new HIV positive diagnosis. The greatest at-risk group is a young, unmarried woman. During pregnancy IPV can have disastrous maternal and fetal outcomes, and it has been found that between 3% and 9% of pregnant women experience IPV.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Maternal adverse outcomes include delayed or insufficient prenatal case, poor weight gain, and an increase in nicotine, alcohol and substance abuse. IPV is also associated with adverse mental health outcomes such as depression in 40% of abused women. Neonatal adverse outcomes from IPV include low birth weight and preterm birth, an infant who is small for gestational age and even perinatal death.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Through adequate training of healthcare professionals, there is opportunity for prevention and intervention during routine obstetric visits, and routine screening is recommended. During prenatal care, only 50% of women receive counselling on IPV. Pregnancy is a unique time during a woman's life and for many women is the only time when regular healthcare is established, heightening the need for effective care from the provider.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: African American women are four times as likely to experience maternal morbidity and mortality than Caucasian women, and there has been no large-scale improvement over the course of 20 years to rectify these conditions. Furthermore, women of color, especially "African-American, Indigenous, Latina and immigrant women and women who did not speak English", are less likely to obtain the care they need. In addition, foreign-born women have an increased likelihood of maternal mortality, particularly Hispanic Women. Cause of mortality, especially in older women, is different among different races. Caucasian women are more likely to experience hemorrhage, cardiomyopathy, and embolism whereas African American women are more likely to experience hypertensive disorders, stroke, and infection. In the case of Black women in the United States, a study from the World Journal of Gynecology and Women's Health found that in addition to the link between cardiovascular disease and maternal mortality, racism in healthcare contributes to these outcomes. Notably, experiencing racism and discrimination in healthcare makes Black mothers less likely to trust the healthcare system, and the authors of this study recommend that addressing this is key to rebuilding trust and encouraging reliance on healthcare system. Distrust in the healthcare system can be detrimental for the health and wellbeing of Black and minority mothers and their infants. Distrust in the healthcare system often results in reduced encounters with the system, which can be very harmful given the established association between late and inadequate prenatal care and poor pregnancy outcomes such as low birth weight, preterm birth, and infant mortality. According to the Listening to Mothers III Survey, 40% of minority participants experienced communication issues and nearly one-quarter of minority mothers felt discriminated against during birth hospitalization. The same survey revealed that Black and Hispanic mothers were nearly three times more likely to experience discrimination in the healthcare system due to their race, language or culture. These issues are exacerbating the observed maternal and infant morbidity and mortality disparity between minority mothers and White mothers in the United States.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Another factor contributing to the increased maternal and infant morbidity and mortality rates in African American and minority women is the difference in delivery hospital quality between minority women and White women. According to a study conducted by Dr. Elizabeth A. Howell, racial and ethnic minority women deliver "in different and lower quality hospitals" than White women. According to Dr. Howell, hospitals where African American women were disproportionately cared for during birth, "had higher risk-adjusted severe maternal morbidity rates for both Black and White women in those hospitals." In NYC, Black women were more likely to deliver in hospitals with a higher rate of "risk-adjusted severe maternal morbidity rates" and a study conducted in the same City revealed that if African American women delivered in the same hospitals as White women, "1000 Black women could avoid severe morbid events during their delivery hospitalization, which could reduce the Black severe maternal morbidity rate from 4.2% to 2.9%."


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: The US has been shown to have the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths o/c maternal mortality amongst all the industrialized countries. The CDC first implemented the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System in 1986 and since then maternal mortality rates have increased from 7.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1987 to 17.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015. The issue of maternal mortality disproportionately affects women of color when compared with the rate in white non-Hispanic women. The following statistics were retrieved from the CDC and show the rate of maternal mortality between 2011 and 2015 per 100000 live births: Black non-Hispanic -42.8, American Indian/Alaskan Native non-Hispanic-32.5, Asian/Pacific Islander on-Hispanic -14.2, White non-Hispanic-13.0, and Hispanic -11.4.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: There are racial disparities present when considering maternal mortality in the United States, with black women being 3 to 4 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications in comparison to white, Asian, and Hispanic women. The causes of death amongst these women were also different, some being more unconventional like hypertension and venous thromboembolisms.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: It is estimated that 99% of women give birth in hospitals with fees that average between $8,900-$11,400 for vaginal delivery and between $14,900-$20,100 for a cesarean. Many women cannot afford these high costs, nor can they afford private health insurance, and even waiting on government-funded care can prove to be fatal, since delays to coverage usually result in women not getting the care they need from the start.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Some other risk factors include obesity, chronic high blood pressure, increased age, diabetes, cesarean delivery, and smoking. Attending less than 10 prenatal visits is also associated with a higher risk of maternal mortality.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: The Healthy People 2010 goal was to reduce the c-section rate to 15% for low-risk first-time mothers, but that goal was not met and the rate of c-sections has been on the rise since 1996 and reached an all-time high in 2009 at 32.9%. Excessive and non-medically necessary cesareans can lead to complications that contribute to maternal mortality.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Geographic location has been found to be a contributing factor as well. Data has shown that rates of maternal mortality are higher in rural areas of the United States. In 2015, the rate of maternal mortality in rural areas was 29.4 per 100,000 live births as compared to 18.2 in metropolitan areas.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: Inconsistent obstetric practice, increase in women with chronic conditions, and lack of maternal health data all contribute to maternal mortality in the United States. According to a 2015 WHO editorial, a nationally implemented guideline for pregnancy and childbirth, along with easy and equal access to prenatal services and care, and active participation from all 50 states to produce better maternal health data are all necessary components to reduce maternal mortality. The Hospital Corporation of America has also found that a uniform guideline for birth can improve maternal care overall. This would ultimately reduce the amount of maternal injury, c-sections, and mortality. The UK has had success drastically reducing preeclampsia deaths by implementing a nationwide standard protocol. However, no such mandated guideline currently exists in the United States.


title: Maternal mortality in the United States

text: According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, out-of-hospital births (such as home births and birthing centers with midwifery assistance) "generally provided a lower risk profile than hospital births."