The Changing Roles and Reputations of Dais in Rural Uttarakhand: An Investigation into the Maternal Health Services of Villages in Okhalkanda Block in Nainital

The dai, once a prominent figure in Indian maternal health, now faces marginalization as the government of India adopts the goal of universal institutional delivery. Under pressure from international discourse that Skilled Birth Attendants (SBAs) were more effective at lowering Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) than Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) like dais (World Health Organization), dai training was discontinued and left in the hands of NGOs, while concurrently women and ASHAs were monetarily incentivized for every institutional birth (Park, 419). Yet in rural, isolated, or hilly areas like Okhalakanda block in Uttarakhand, institutional delivery is a long way from universal—only 37% of all deliveries occur in a hospital (Aarohi Arogya Project). The harsh realities of being a woman in an isolated Kumaoni village contribute to the backward motivations of home deliveries: women often have low selfdetermination, must return to work quickly after giving birth, and are not well included into many government services (Capila). They fear the hospital for its cesarean sections and long recovery periods from stitches, feel pressure from mother-in-laws who called on dais in their day, and often do not receive effective counselling about proper ANC, PNC, and institutional delivery. Yet safe and hygienic delivery are the right of every woman—disregarding home deliveries and dais puts the onus on the woman to get to the hospital in order to receive proper services and counselling. In reality, social and logistical factors can impede a woman’s ability or desire to delivery in a hospital. While dai training can seemingly endorse home delivery, it is the only way to improve the health outcomes of the women who are left out of the government ‘universal’ institutional delivery services. The findings recommend that dai training furthermore should focus on including them and their clients in government health services and tracking, as well as filling the counselling gap that the outreach efforts of ASHAs and ANMs have been unable close

Darth Bane : The Monomyth's Dark Liberator

Darth Bane: The Monomyth's Dark Liberator is an original thesis based on Joseph Campbell's theory of the monomyth and Drew Karpyshyn's Darth Bane Trilogy. Campbell's theory of the monomyth has most commonly been called the hero's journey. For many years, the archetypal hero has been thought to be the only character that met the requirements of Campbell's theory. However, through Karpyshyn's trilogy of novels about the Sith Lord, Darth Bane, Bane illustrates what the epitome of an antihero is and also that he can make the monomyth his own. The antihero is one of the most fascinating character types in literature, and through Bane's complicated journey as an antihero, he proves that he embodies all of the qualifications set down by Campbell's theory and experiences a monomythic adventure.  M.A

Multimission Aircraft Design Study: Electromagnetic Compatibility

The multi-mission aircraft (MMA) technical feasibility study looked at the replacement of the aging fleet of C-135 and C-130 theater based command & control (C2) and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) fleet. It is proposed that the MMA be out-fitted to combine some or all the functions of existing AWACS, JSTARS, RIVET JOINT, COMPASS CALL, and ABC CC platforms. It would also have links to other manned or unmanned ISR aircraft, as well as satellites. The objective of the proposed design study is to examine the technical risks involved in combining multiple functions onto one aircraft that currently reside on separate aircraft. This thesis specifically focused on the risks that are due to electromagnetic interference between transmitters and interference between active and passive sensors. Two architectures were examined: one tail number (OTN) and different tail number (DTN). The OTN architecture was found to be incompatible due to interference between the air moving target indicator transmit and high band receive functions, whereas, the DTN was found to be compatible for all variant architectures

Dual separable feedback systems govern firing rate homeostasis.

Firing rate homeostasis (FRH) stabilizes neural activity. A pervasive and intuitive theory argues that a single variable, calcium, is detected and stabilized through regulatory feedback. A prediction is that ion channel gene mutations with equivalent effects on neuronal excitability should invoke the same homeostatic response. In agreement, we demonstrate robust FRH following either elimination of Kv4/Shal protein or elimination of the Kv4/Shal conductance. However, the underlying homeostatic signaling mechanisms are distinct. Eliminating Shal protein invokes Krüppel-dependent rebalancing of ion channel gene expression including enhanced slo, Shab, and Shaker. By contrast, expression of these genes remains unchanged in animals harboring a CRISPR-engineered, Shal pore-blocking mutation where compensation is achieved by enhanced IKDR. These different homeostatic processes have distinct effects on homeostatic synaptic plasticity and animal behavior. We propose that FRH includes mechanisms of proteostatic feedback that act in parallel with activity-driven feedback, with implications for the pathophysiology of human channelopathies

Vicarious Trauma Exposure and Its Effects on Mental Health among Adolescents and Adults: A Narrative Research Review

Vicarious Trauma Exposure and Its Effects on Mental Health among Adolescents and Adults: A Narrative Research Review Harris Davis, Dept. of Psychology, Angel Whitfield, Sydney Judge, Bailee Beverly, Jenna Minter, Harrison Davis, and Eryn DeLaney and Chloe Walker, Dept. of Psychology Graduate Students, with Dr. Chelsea Williams, Dept. of Psychology A narrative research review was conducted to examine studies that have tested the relation between vicarious trauma (i.e., witnessing abuse of others; Trautmann, S., Reineboth, M., Trikojat, K., Richter, J., Hagenaars, M. A., Kanske, P., & Schäfer, J. (2018). and mental health in adolescents and young adults. Using psycinfo to find research conducted to date, this review indicated that there are various types of trauma that adolescents might be exposed to (e.g., domestic abuse, emotional abuse, and physical abuse) and various forms of mental health issues (e.g., post traumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety) that might result from such trauma. (Erolin, K. S., Wieling, E., & Parra, R. E. A. (2014)., , Stowkowy, J., Goldstein, B. I., MacQueen, G., Wang, J., Kennedy, S. H., Bray, S., Lebel, C., & Addington, J. (2020). Findings from this review also suggest that there is a relation between varying types of traumatic exposure and several types of depressive symptoms (Monfort, E., Afzali M. H. (2015), Merza, K., Papp, G., & Szabó, I. K. (2015) and that there are more studies on adults than on adolescents. These effects will be discussed. Gaps in the literature will be referenced and potential future research directions will be acknowledged. In conclusion, this narrative research review emphasizes the importance of knowing the effects of vicarious trauma on adolescents and adults for preventative purposes.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1336/thumbnail.jp

The Impact of an 8-hour Versus 12-hour Shift for Registered Nurses: An Integrative Review

More hospitals are eliminating the traditional 8 hour shift and replacing it with the 12 hour shift. The aim of this study was to review literature about the effects of shift length on nurses and patients. Cedarville University\u27s OneSearch was used to collect the 12 articles reviewed. Some studies indicated nurses working 12 hour shifts were at a greater risk of experiencing burnout compared to nurses working 8 hour shifts. Nurses working 12 hour shifts were more likely to experience chronic fatigue related to inadequate amounts of sleep. Furthermore, when a nurse’s shift exceeded 13 hours, patients became more dissatisfied with their hospital care. Further research is still needed before a change in policy is recommended. Implications for the present include education and modification of the 12 hour shift to make it more manageable

‘A double-edged sword. This is powerful but it could be used destructively’: Perspectives of early career education researchers on learning analytics

Learning analytics has been increasingly outlined as a powerful tool for measuring, analysing, and predicting learning experiences and behaviours. The rising use of learning analytics means that many educational researchers now require new ranges of technical analytical skills to contribute to an increasingly data-heavy field. However, it has been argued that educational data scientists are a ‘scarce breed’ (Buckingham Shum et al., 2013) and that more resources are needed to support the next generation of early career researchers in the education field. At the same time, little is known about how early career education researchers feel towards learning analytics and whether it is important to their current and future research practices. Using a thematic analysis of a participatory learning analytics workshop discussions with 25 early career education researchers, we outline in this article their ambitions, challenges and anxieties towards learning analytics. In doing so, we have provided a roadmap for how the learning analytics field might evolve and practical implications for supporting early career researchers’ development

An Innovative Approach for Community Engagement: Using an Audience Response System

Community-based participatory research methods allow for community engagement in the effort to reduce cancer health disparities. Community engagement involves health professionals becoming a part of the community in order to build trust, learn from the community and empower them to reduce disparities through their own initiatives and ideas. Audience Response Systems (ARS) are an innovative and engaging way to involve the community and obtain data for research purposes using keypads to report results via power point. The use of ARS within communities is very limited and serves to widen the disparity gap by not delivering new advances in medical knowledge and technology among all population groups. ARS was implemented at a community town hall event sponsored by a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Exploratory Center of Excellence, the Center for Equal Health. Participants appreciated being able to see how everyone else answered and felt included in the research process. ARS is beneficial because the community can answer truthfully and provides instant research results. Additionally, researchers can collect large amounts of data quickly, in a non-threatening way while tracking individual responses anonymously. Audience Response Systems proved to be an effective tool for successfully accomplishing community-based participatory research

Early-Morning and Late-Night Maximal Runs: Metabolic and Perceived Exertion Outcomes

People may exercise at the ends of their day to fit activity into their schedule; the purpose of this investigation was to determine if metabolic or perceived exertion outcomes differed between maximal runs early in the morning and late at night. After consuming a standardized, glucose drink, thirteen recreationally active individuals completed an early-morning and a late-night run on the treadmill while researchers measured metabolic (aerobic capacity and substrate usage) and perceived exertion outcomes. Point of application #1: Aerobic capacity (maximal consumption of oxygen) and the usage of fat as a fuel to support energy production during exercise were similar between runs. Point of application #2: Maximal perceived exertion (Borg’s 6-20) was similar during early-morning and late-night runs. Point of application #3: While research indicates that people may prefer activity in the morning or evening, and this might impact metabolic responses to the exercise bout, most of our participants (n=8) identified with no preference for exercising in the early-morning or late-night. Key Words: glucose; CHO shake; VO2max; fat oxidation; effor

The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Calls to the Mississippi Poison Control Center

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to change human exposure patterns to potentially hazardous substances including cleaning products and pharmaceuticals. Purpose: To characterize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on calls received at the Mississippi Poison Control Center during the pandemic as compared to pre-pandemic years. Methods: We queried the Mississippi Poison Control Center Toxicall database for total calls, calls related to bleach, disinfectants, and hand sanitizers, calls related to ivermectin exposures, calls related to hydroxychloroquine exposures, calls related to COVID-19, and suspected suicide calls. Results: During the COVID-19 pandemic increases were seen in calls for exposures to disinfectants and cleaning products, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, while no changes were seen in overall call volume or suspected suicide calls. Conclusion: In Mississippi, the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with spikes in exposures to disinfectants and cleaning products, hydroxychloroquine, and ivermectin