Developing a podcast series to promote maternal perinatal well-being

Background: The transition to motherhood for first-time mothers can be characterised by psychological distress, which can result from inadequate support during the perinatal period. Limited accessibility to support in rural and remote areas means that it is imperative we provide accessible, online resources. To this end, the BAMBOO WebApp will pair new mums with peer mentors and provide a digital resource centre, which contains a podcast series. This research examined the development of the podcast series. Method: A collaborative auto-ethnography was used to examine the podcast creators’ environment, interactions and reflections on the recording process. This was complemented by listener interviews, wherein discussions centred on opinions and suggestions pertaining to the podcast series’ purpose, applicability, content, and design. Results: The process describing the development of the podcast series will be outlined. With data collection still underway, thematic analyses of project data will identify themes concerning its content, design, applicability, and usability. Discussion of the findings will also address how the dissemination of health information to new mothers via podcasts can be optimized. Conclusions: The project findings have broad implications concerning the impact that a podcast series within a WebApp can have on supporting maternal well-being. Additionally, findings regarding the process of translating research findings into engaging, public-facing edutainment have implications for how to better produce health education materials

A scoping review examining how music listening can support intrapartum maternal well-being

Background: How might music listening support intrapartum well-being for mothers, when this period can be distressing for first time mothers? Moreover, what type of music listening resources are shown to support maternal intrapartum well-being? We have undertaken a scoping review to consolidate evidence-based knowledge on the role of music listening for maternal intrapartum well-being. Method: The PRISMA-ScR protocol was followed (Tricco et al., 2018). English language, peerreviewed publications between 2000 and 2023 about research specifically related to music listening were examined following a keyword search (music AND listen*, AND (spellings of) perinatal OR prenatal OR prenatal OR pregnan* OR labour OR birth OR antepartum OR intrapartum). Articles focused only on interventions other than music listening (e.g., music therapy, group lessons, and singing) and those focused only on fertility, contraception, or child outcomes were excluded. Results: Preliminary findings suggest that the impact of music listening can be grouped under three themes: while pregnant (e.g., reducing stress, anxiety and depression and improving sleep quality; while in labour (reducing mothers’ stress, anxiety, and fears, providing a distraction, reducing pain/medication), and regarding longer-term consequences (increasing maternal-infant bonding and self-efficacy, decreasing the risk of postanal depression). Conclusions: While there is varied reporting regarding the stimuli or resources used in these studies; consolidating the evidence-based music listening resources will result in an online resource centre for mothers. Doing so affords expectant mothers (especially those residing in rural and remote communities) access to low-cost, evidence-based resources, aimed at promoting their well-being pre-/post-natally

Towards a service-oriented e-infrastructure for multidisciplinary environmental research

Research e-infrastructures are considered to have generic and thematic parts. The generic part provids high-speed networks, grid (large-scale distributed computing) and database systems (digital repositories and data transfer systems) applicable to all research commnities irrespective of discipline. Thematic parts are specific deployments of e-infrastructures to support diverse virtual research communities. The needs of a virtual community of multidisciplinary envronmental researchers are yet to be investigated. We envisage and argue for an e-infrastructure that will enable environmental researchers to develop environmental models and software entirely out of existing components through loose coupling of diverse digital resources based on the service-oriented achitecture. We discuss four specific aspects for consideration for a future e-infrastructure: 1) provision of digital resources (data, models & tools) as web services, 2) dealing with stateless and non-transactional nature of web services using workflow management systems, 3) enabling web servce discovery, composition and orchestration through semantic registries, and 4) creating synergy with existing grid infrastructures

Musician interaction via social networking sites

Social network sites (SNS) allow for interaction between musicians and fans, including parasocial relationships. The present research approaches the topic from the perspective of psychology and particularly previous research concerning attachment styles, celebrity interest, and their correlates. Using an online survey (N = 464), we considered whether psychological variables could predict whether individuals interact with musicians on SNS, and their opinions about doing so. Findings demonstrate that users’ celebrity attitudes and relationship attachment styles are important in predicting the extent to which they utilize SNS to interact with musicians. Therefore, it seems that SNS music fan behaviors have an overtly psychological component, such that further research might adopt a psychological rather than technological approach in predicting commercial usage

The HERMES Back Drift Chambers

The tracking system of the HERMES spectrometer behind the bending magnet consists of two pairs of large planar 6-plane drift chambers. The design and performance of these chambers is described. This description comprises details on the mechanical and electronical design, information about the gas mixture used and its properties, results on alignment, calibration, resolution, and efficiencies, and a discussion of the experience gained through the first three years of operation.Comment: 21 pages, LaTex, 16 figures include

From Network Structure to Dynamics and Back Again: Relating dynamical stability and connection topology in biological complex systems

The recent discovery of universal principles underlying many complex networks occurring across a wide range of length scales in the biological world has spurred physicists in trying to understand such features using techniques from statistical physics and non-linear dynamics. In this paper, we look at a few examples of biological networks to see how similar questions can come up in very different contexts. We review some of our recent work that looks at how network structure (e.g., its connection topology) can dictate the nature of its dynamics, and conversely, how dynamical considerations constrain the network structure. We also see how networks occurring in nature can evolve to modular configurations as a result of simultaneously trying to satisfy multiple structural and dynamical constraints. The resulting optimal networks possess hubs and have heterogeneous degree distribution similar to those seen in biological systems.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Proceedings of "Dynamics On and Of Complex Networks", ECSS'07 Satellite Workshop, Dresden, Oct 1-5, 200

Assessing hydrological controls on the lithium isotope weathering tracer

To investigate the impact of riverine discharge and weathering intensity on lithium isotopes (δ7Li) in a mono-lithological terrain, this study examines the dissolved load and leached suspended load (exchangeable, oxide, and clay fractions) from Icelandic rivers spanning a wide range of discharge, weathering rates, and weathering intensity. The δ7Lidissolved co-varies inversely with the discharge, confirming that water-rock interaction time is a primary control on the secondary mineral formation that fractionates Li isotopes. The “boomerang” shape observed in global rivers between the weathering intensity (i.e. W/D = weathering rate/denudation rate) and δ7Lidissolved also exists for these basaltic rivers at low to medium W/D. However, these rivers do not extend to such low δ7Lidissolved values as seen in the global compilation at low W/D, indicating that there is a lithological control on this relationship arising from the type of the lithology-specific secondary minerals forming and their precipitation rates. In addition, the Δ7Lix-dissolved between each leached solid phase and the dissolved load also co-varies with discharge. At low discharge (long water-rock interaction times), Δ7Lix-dissolved values agree with experimentally-determined equilibrium values, whereas less fractionated values are observed at higher discharge (shorter water-rock interaction times). As a result, there is a different relationship between W/D and Δ7Liclay-source in this basaltic terrain than previously reported from global multi-lithological river sediment samples, with clay leachates from Iceland more closely mimicking the boomerang shape of the dissolved load. However, the relationship between δ7Li and weathering processes is complicated because the fractionation between the clay fraction and the dissolved load is not constant but varies with both W/D and discharge. Overall, this study confirms the utility of Li isotopes as a tracer of modern and palaeo-weathering processes, and also has important implications for the specific interpretations of detrital δ7Li values, which may be more sensitive to weathering parameters than previously thought

Enhanced clay formation key in sustaining the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum

The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (around 40 million years ago) was a roughly 400,000-year-long global warming phase associated with an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations and deep-ocean acidification that interrupted the Eocene’s long-term cooling trend. The unusually long duration, compared with early Eocene global warming phases, is puzzling as temperature-dependent silicate weathering should have provided a negative feedback, drawing down CO2 over this timescale. Here we investigate silicate weathering during this climate warming event by measuring lithium isotope ratios (reported as δ7Li), which are a tracer for silicate weathering processes, from a suite of open-ocean carbonate-rich sediments. We find a positive δ7Li excursion—the only one identified for a warming event so far —of ~3‰. Box model simulations support this signal to reflect a global shift from congruent weathering, with secondary mineral dissolution, to incongruent weathering, with secondary mineral formation. We surmise that, before the climatic optimum, there was considerable soil shielding of the continents. An increase in continental volcanism initiated the warming event, but it was sustained by an increase in clay formation, which sequestered carbonate-forming cations, short-circuiting the carbonate–silicate cycle. Clay mineral dynamics may play an important role in the carbon cycle for climatic events occurring over intermediate (i.e., 100,000 year) timeframes

Metal enrichment processes

There are many processes that can transport gas from the galaxies to their environment and enrich the environment in this way with metals. These metal enrichment processes have a large influence on the evolution of both the galaxies and their environment. Various processes can contribute to the gas transfer: ram-pressure stripping, galactic winds, AGN outflows, galaxy-galaxy interactions and others. We review their observational evidence, corresponding simulations, their efficiencies, and their time scales as far as they are known to date. It seems that all processes can contribute to the enrichment. There is not a single process that always dominates the enrichment, because the efficiencies of the processes vary strongly with galaxy and environmental properties.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews, special issue "Clusters of galaxies: beyond the thermal view", Editor J.S. Kaastra, Chapter 17; work done by an international team at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI), Bern, organised by J.S. Kaastra, A.M. Bykov, S. Schindler & J.A.M. Bleeke