Localizing the international: examining how fieldworkers combat adolescent pregnancy in northern Ghana

International aid is often ineffective because it is delivered without an understanding of local ideologies and contexts. My Capstone examined whether or not international aid in northern Ghana could be effective when addressing adolescent pregnancy. The Ghanaian programs I address in my Capstone are six non-governmental organizations, a government sub-district clinic and government junior high schools. The majority of my data was collected through interviews with individuals at all levels of the organizations, including directors, staff members, volunteers and individuals seeking the organization’s services. Alongside interviews I also spent time in the field, participating in youth group discussions, visiting regional training centers for skill-based education, and observing the daily interactions at a maternal healthcare clinic. I also examined the developmental history of northern Ghana to gain a better understanding of the contexts within which this aid was utilized. My findings show the ways northern Ghanaian fieldworkers utilize international funds, and how ideologies and volunteers ensure that the services’ northern adolescent women and mothers can access are specific, multi-faceted, and effective. They work not only to decrease adolescent pregnancy rates, but also to improve the livelihoods of marginalized women across the North. Fieldworkers are able to utilize this aid while simultaneously juggling local customs, a history of systematic underdevelopment, and a disconnect from southern Ghana. Despite these constraints, this network is imperative to the northern community, especially when governmental efforts to address adolescent pregnancy thus far have been inadequate and unable to meet the needs of the North, despite over fifty years of unification as a nation. The network demonstrates that international aid can be effective so long as it is channeled by local fieldworkers, who can better adapt Western aid to specific, local needs and adapt the ideologies of the aid to the local worldview

The ocean's saltiness and its overturning

Here we explore the relationship between the mean salinity urn:x-wiley:grl:media:grl55555:grl55555-math-0001 of the ocean and the strength of its Atlantic and Pacific Meridional Overturning Circulations (AMOC and PMOC). We compare simulations performed with a realistically configured coarse‐grained ocean model, spanning a range of mean salinities. We find that the AMOC strength increases approximately linearly with urn:x-wiley:grl:media:grl55555:grl55555-math-0002. In contrast, the PMOC strength declines approximately linearly with urn:x-wiley:grl:media:grl55555:grl55555-math-0003 until it reaches a small background value similar to the present‐day ocean. Well‐established scaling laws for the overturning circulation explain both of these dependencies on urn:x-wiley:grl:media:grl55555:grl55555-math-0004

Mcl-1 dynamics influence mitotic slippage and death in mitosis

Microtubule-binding drugs such as taxol are frontline treatments for a variety of cancers but exactly how they yield patient benefit is unclear. In cell culture, inhibiting microtubule dynamics prevents spindle assembly, leading to mitotic arrest followed by either apoptosis in mitosis or slippage, whereby a cell returns to interphase without dividing. Myeloid cell leukaemia-1 (Mcl-1), a pro-survival member of the Bcl-2 family central to the intrinsic apoptosis pathway, is degraded during a prolonged mitotic arrest and may therefore act as a mitotic death timer. Consistently, we show that blocking proteasome-mediated degradation inhibits taxol-induced mitotic apoptosis in a Mcl-1-dependent manner. However, this degradation does not require the activity of either APC/C-Cdc20, FBW7 or MULE, three separate E3 ubiquitin ligases implicated in targeting Mcl-1 for degradation. This therefore challenges the notion that Mcl-1 undergoes regulated degradation during mitosis. We also show that Mcl-1 is continuously synthesized during mitosis and that blocking protein synthesis accelerates taxol induced death-in-mitosis. Modulating Mcl-1 levels also influences slippage; overexpressing Mcl-1 extends the time from mitotic entry to mitotic exit in the presence of taxol, while inhibiting Mcl-1 accelerates it. We suggest that Mcl-1 competes with Cyclin B1 for binding to components of the proteolysis machinery, thereby slowing down the slow degradation of Cyclin B1 responsible for slippage. Thus, modulating Mcl-1 dynamics influences both death-in-mitosis and slippage. However, because mitotic degradation of Mcl-1 appears not to be under the control of an E3 ligase, we suggest that the notion of network crosstalk is used with caution

A prospective study of mental health status in morbidly obese patients.

Aim: To determine if co-morbidities have an effect on mood in a cohort of morbidly obese patients

A prospective study of mental health status in morbidly obese patients.

Aim: To determine if co-morbidities have an effect on mood in a cohort of morbidly obese patients

Boundary Crossing: Networked Policing and Emergent “Communities of Practice” in Safeguarding Children

Child safeguarding has come to the forefront of public debate in the UK in the aftermath of a series of highly publicised incidents of child sexual exploitation and abuse. These have exposed the inadequacies and failings of inter-organisational relations between police and key partners. While the discourse of policing partnerships is now accepted wisdom, progress has been distinctly hesitant. This paper contributes to understanding both the challenges and opportunities presented through working across organisational boundaries in the context of safeguarding children. It draws on a study of relations within one of the largest Safeguarding Children partnerships in England, developing insights from Etienne Wenger regarding the potential of ‘communities of practice’ that innovate on the basis of everyday learning through ‘boundary work’. We demonstrate how such networked approaches expose the differential power relations and sites of conflict between organisations but also provide possibilities to challenge introspective cultures and foster organisational learning. We argue that crucial in cultivating effective ‘communities of practice’ are: shared commitment and purpose; relations of trust; balanced exchange of information and resources; mutual respect for difference; and an open and mature dialogue over possible conflicts. Boundary crossing can open opportunities to foster increased reflexivity among policing professionals, prompting critical self-reflection on values, ongoing reassessment of assumptions and questioning of terminology. Yet, there is an inherent tension in that the learning and innovative potential afforded by emergent ‘communities of practice’ derives from the coexistence and interplay between both the depth of knowledge within practices and active boundaries across practices

A longitudinal study of risk factors for the occurrence, duration and severity of menstrual cramps in a cohort of college women

To describe how menstrual cramps vary from cycle to cycle within a woman over time. To examine the influence of weight and lifestyle factors on occurrence, duration, and severity of menstrual pain. Design A one-year prospective menstrual diary study. Participants One hundred and sixty-five women aged 17 to 19 years entering a local university in 1985. Main outcome measures The occurrence, length, and maximum severity of pain during a menstrual period. Results Menstrual pain occurred during 71.6% of observed menstrual bleeds, most commonly beginning the first day of menses. The median duration was two days. Sixty percent of women reported at least one episode of severe pain, while 13% reported severe pain more than half the time. Earlier age at menarche and long menstrual periods increased the occurrence, duration and severity of pain. In smokers, cramps tended to last longer. Being overweight was an important risk factor for menstrual cramps and doubled the odds of having a long pain episode. Frequent alcohol consumption decreased the probability of having menstrual cramps, but in women who had pain it increased duration and severity. Physical activity was not associated with any pain parameter. Conclusions Women who have pain lasting three days are an important target group for prophylactic therapy. The occurrence and severity of menstrual cramps is influenced by potentially modifiable characteristics including weight, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Doctors may wish to counsel women presenting with dysmenorrhoea about the importance of healthy lifestyles and about the inefficacy of alcohol consumption as a treatment for dysmenorrhoea.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73220/1/j.1471-0528.1996.tb09597.x.pd