Bereavement in the Elective Abortion Patient

Currently in the United States, approximately 1.5 million elective abortions are performed annually. Despite the frequency in which abortions occur, little research has been done to document women’s experiences of voluntary perinatal loss. The purpose of this study was to examine the bereavement process as it occurred in rural women who elected voluntary termination of a pregnancy

Kansas Labor Unions: Past, Present and Future

This is the published version, made available with the permission of the publisher

Navigating in large hospitals

Navigating around large hospitals can be a stressful and time-consuming experience for all users of the hospital infrastructure. Navigation difficulties encountered by patients and visitors can result in missed appointments or simply create a poor impression of the hospital organisation. When staff encounter navigation difficulties this can lead to cost and efficiency issues and potentially put patient safety at risk. Despite the provision of an array of in-hospital navigational aids, ‘getting lost’ continues to be an everyday problem in these large complex environments. This study aims to to identify factors which affect navigation in hospitals. We do not seek to evaluate the effectiveness of a single navigation aid, instead the objective of this study was to understand the environment in which a new system must operate and the gaps in provision left by existing navigation aids. This study is intended to be used to inform the development of new in hospital navigational aids, be they technological or otherwise. Eleven participants, all users of a large hospital site, were asked to describe specific first hand experiences of navigating in a hospital. The ‘Critical Incidence Technique’ was applied in a series of semi-structured interviews to elicit information about a participants navigation experience. This work presents the results of these interviews, with concepts identified and organised into five themes: The ‘Impact’ of poor navigation, ‘Barriers’ to effective navigation, ‘Enhancers’ for effective navigation, ‘Types of Navigation Aids’ and user groups with ‘Specific Navigational Needs’. The number of navigation aids available to participants was identified as an issue in itself, we found examples of thirty seven distinct sources of information available to a hospital user. We begin by introducing previous work on in-hospital navigation before describing the study design employed in this research. The themes and categories identified from the interview data are enumerated and described, with examples given from the interview transcripts. Finally we go on to give a discussion of some potential navigation solutions in light of the identified factors. This study highlights that a candidate navigation aid must be carefully designed and implemented if it is to compliment the thirty seven other sources of navigation information available to the hospital user

Skeletal muscle dysfunction is associated with derangements in mitochondrial bioenergetics (but not UCP3) in a rodent model of sepsis

Muscle dysfunction is a common feature of severe sepsis and multi-organ failure. Recent evidence implicates bioenergetic dysfunction and oxidative damage as important underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. Increased abundance of uncoupling protein-3 (UCP-3) in sepsis suggests increased mitochondrial proton leak, which may reduce mitochondrial coupling efficiency but limit ROS production. Using a murine model, we examined metabolic, cardiovascular and skeletal muscle contractile changes following induction of peritoneal sepsis in wild-type and Ucp3(-/-) mice. Mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) was measured using two-photon microscopy in living diaphragm, and contractile function was measured in diaphragm muscle strips. The kinetic relationship between membrane potential and oxygen consumption was determined using a modular kinetic approach in isolated mitochondria. Sepsis was associated with significant whole body metabolic suppression, hypothermia and cardiovascular dysfunction. Maximal force generation was reduced and fatigue accelerated in ex vivo diaphragm muscle strips from septic mice. Mitochondrial membrane potential was lower in the isolated diaphragm from septic mice despite normal substrate oxidation kinetics and proton leak in skeletal muscle mitochondria. Even though wild-type mice exhibited an absolute 26 ± 6% higher UCP-3 protein abundance at 24 hours, no differences were seen in whole animal or diaphragm physiology, nor in survival rates, between wild-type and Ucp3(-/-) mice. In conclusion, this murine sepsis model shows a hypometabolic phenotype with evidence of significant cardiovascular and muscle dysfunction. This was associated with lower Δψm and alterations in mitochondrial ATP turnover and phosphorylation pathway. However, UCP-3 does not play an important functional role, despite its upregulation

Where Do We Go From Here? A Summary of Issues of Concern and Recommendations Developed During the Panel Discussion of the Large Pelagic Fishes Symposium

One of the goals of the Large Pelagic Fishes Symposium was to provide a forum for development of a list of Issues of Concern regarding large pelagic fishes and their fisheries in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico region. During the Symposium and ensuing Panel Discussion, it became clear that the level of consciousness concerning large pelagic fishes is of equal importance to that of other regional fisheries such as reef fishes and conch/lobster. Four major issues of concern regarding large pelagic fishes in the region surfaced during the Symposium. The Symposium Committee recommends that future resources and energy should be addressed to these identified concerns: 1) Fisheries policy-advisors and managers are not getting information from scientists in a timely fashion; 2) Approaches to reduce overfishing and its negative effects need to be strengthened; 3) Insufficient attention is being paid to instituting effective regional management; and 4) Initiatives to engage fishers in management processes and to help find solutions are inadequate. Panel members and Symposium participants made a number of recommendations for addressing each of these issues. The recommendations related to helping resolve each issue of concern are listed

Access and Integration: Perspectives of Disabled Students Living on Campus

Disabled students may face ableist challenges in the campus residential environment. Although campus housing plays a critical role in retention by promoting social integration, little is known about what promotes the engagement of disabled students in campus living environments because the literature about these students focuses on legal topics or accommodations. In this study, we wanted to understand how disabled students experienced living on campus and how the residential experience promoted social integration. We employed a critical constructivist case study approach, framing disability from a social justice perspective. Data for this study come from interviews with 24 students attending four highly residential liberal arts colleges. Students reported that the degree of accessibility, flexibility, use of accommodations, and staff disability awareness and responsiveness influenced their social integration and residential experience. Implications for practice include providing disability-specific staff training, tailoring accommodations to individual students, conceptualizing access broadly, using single rooms creatively, and viewing dining services as part of the housing experience even if the administrative locations are different

A viral vaccine vector that expresses foreign genes in lymph nodes and protects against mucosal challenge.

A candidate live-virus vaccine strain of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEE) was configured as a replication-competent vector for in vivo expression of heterologous immunogens. Three features of VEE recommend it for use as a vaccine vector. (i) Most human and animal populations are not already immune to VEE, so preexisting immunity to the vector would not limit expression of the heterologous antigen. (ii) VEE replicates first in local lymphoid tissue, a site favoring the induction of an effective immune response. (iii) Parenteral immunization of rodents and humans with live, attenuated VEE vaccines protects against mucosal challenge, suggesting that VEE vaccine vectors might be used successfully to protect against mucosal pathogens. Upon subcutaneous (s.c.) inoculation into the footpad of mice, a VEE vector containing the complete influenza virus hemagglutinin (HA) gene expressed HA in the draining lymph node and induced anti-HA immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgA serum antibodies, the levels of which could be increased by s.c. booster inoculation. When immunized mice were challenged intranasally with a virulent strain of influenza virus, replication of challenge virus in their lungs was restricted, and they were completely protected from signs of disease. Significant reduction of influenza virus replication in the nasal epithelia of HA vector-immunized mice suggested an effective immunity at the mucosal surface. VEE vaccine vectors represent an alternative vaccination strategy when killed or subunit vaccines are ineffective or when the use of a live attenuated vaccine might be unsafe

A 50 Year Accomplishment in Marine Science: A History of the Journal Published by the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory

The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory (GCRL) has a 50 year history of annual publication of the peer-reviewed journal Gulf and Caribbean Research (GCR, 2000-present; formerly Gulf Research Reports (GRR) from 1961—1999). Other extant journals serving the region during this time include Contributions in Marine Science (since 1945), Proceedings of the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (since 1948), Bulletin of Marine Science (since 1951), Revista de Biología Tropical (since 1953), and Caribbean Journal of Science (since 1961). In the early years of the GCR publication, papers were primarily concerned with research in Mississippi and the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM), and the majority of authors were from USM/GCRL or the GOM region. However, in the past 15 years, studies from Mexico and the Caribbean have dramatically increased, with a concurrent increase in the geographical diversity of authors. Overall, surveys and inventories, taxonomy, and life history studies have been most common, and taxa have been dominated by fish and crustaceans. Offshore, benthic and marsh habitats have been the most commonly studied during GCR’s 50 year history. In general, publications during the last 15 years are more similar to each other (≥ 65% similarity based on CLUSTER analysis and MDS ordinations) than to earlier publications for geography, taxon, habitat and subject areas. The journal is well cited in peer-reviewed literature, with 72% of the papers published in GRR and 65% of those published in GCR cited at least once. GCR provides an important outlet for peer-reviewed publications from the GOM and Caribbean region