Feasibility of Oral Prenatal Probiotics against Maternal Group B \u3cem\u3eStreptococcus\u3c/em\u3e Vaginal and Rectal Colonization

Objective To examine the effect of an oral prenatal probiotic on group B Streptococcus (GBS) colonization and to demonstrate the feasibility of a larger randomized controlled trial. Design This pilot study was an open‐label, two‐group quasi‐experiment. Setting An urban central city nurse‐midwifery and wellness center serving a diverse population. Participants Ten pregnant participants received the oral probiotic (Florajen3) taken once daily, and 10 participants served as controls. Methods A questionnaire on dietary practices, vaginal cleansing, sexual history, and symptoms and GBS colony count samples were taken at 28‐, 32‐, and 36‐weeks gestation. Results Participants in the probiotic group reported no adverse events or minor side effects; one half reported improved gastrointestinal symptoms. Although two women in each group had positive qualitative prenatal GBS cultures at 36 weeks, the probiotic group participants had lower quantitative GBS colony counts. The eight GBS negative averaged 90% probiotic adherence compared with two GBS positive women who averaged 68%. Yogurt ingestion was inversely related (p= .02) to GBS colonization. Conclusions Prenatal probiotic therapy has the potential to reduce GBS colonization. The potential of the probiotic intervention appears to be linked to daily adherence. A controlled clinical trial with a larger, adequately powered sample is feasible and justified

Using a Forward Chain to Teach Intruder Training to Children with Autism

Safety drills, such as tornado, fire and intruder drills are mandated in schools across the United States. These drills require prolonged compliance by students and are commonly taught using verbal instructions. However, individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), may struggle with complex routines, attending to verbal stimuli, or complying for long durations. Thus, when children with ASD transition to school these drills may be difficult for them to complete and little to no research has been conducted on this topic. Thus, the current study utilized a concurrent multiple baseline design across participants to examine the use of a forward chain to teach intruder training to two children diagnosed with ASD. The results demonstrated that both participants met mastery criterion for all components of the intruder drill and the results have important implications for the school setting

Diminished Quality of Life among Women affected by Ebola

This article analyzes data collected from Liberian women afflicted by the Ebola virus disease, survivors of the virus and noninfected persons living in Ebola-affected homes. This research is one of the first statistical analyses examining factors diminishing quality of life: negative experiences, stigma, and psychosocial symptoms among females affected by the virus after the outbreak. The research presents a thorough literature review, including research related to other infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, to inform the gap in studies on Ebola’s effects on quality of life. Women who are Ebola virus disease survivors demonstrate significant differences in stigma and psychosocial stress when compared to their female peers. This article attempts to broaden understanding of the conditions and mental health of women affected by Ebola

Dressing the Networked Subject: Collaborative Fashion/Art Work as Queer-Feminist Practice

This practice-led research project considers the ways in which an expanded collaborative fashion/art practice working across mediums including fashion, costume, image, video, digital online networks and performance, functions as queer-feminist work. The accumulated research provides an overview of my fashion/art output throughout the period of my Master of Fine Art candidature, looking at my own collaborative fashion/art practice, working with textiles, image, video, digital online networks, performance, and other artists. I consider camera-performances of mine, CamGirl and ‘…it loves without condition or discrimination, but only once the material conditions of its production have been dismissed.’, 2017, alongside an early example of cyberfeminist literature, Shelly Jackson’s Patchwork Girl. My collaborative fashion/art project ‘Given we don’t know each other I think we should meet beforehand to discuss safety, consent and preferences…’ at the National Art School for Art Month, Sydney, 2019, is read alongside the work of New York based fashion/art collective Women’s History Museum, looking at ways that queer-feminist work is collaboratively produced, and the possibilities and limitations of such networks. The fashion/art work House of Silky x Megan Hanson Collaboration for Sissy Ball 2020, is read in the context of vogue ball culture and considers the way queer subjectivity is produced in these spaces. The theoretical research that informs my fashion/art practice includes the work of queer, queer-feminist and feminist thinkers bell hooks, Kathy Acker, Karen Barad, Audre Lorde, Astrida Neimanis, Rosi Braidotti, Lee Mackinnon, N. Katherine Hayles, Amelia Jones, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Marlon M. Bailey, Jack Halberstam, and Legacy Russell, finding in their work intersecting ideas at the site of the body, through a politics of location. bell hooks’ writing on love as a strategy for radical feminist practice is central to my understanding of the fashion/art work that myself and my collaborators produce. As hooks explains, by first looking at one’s self, one can begin the process of decolonisation; it is after looking inward that one is then better equipped to do queer-feminist work. The posthuman performative subject, a queer-feminist concept central to my research, provides a framework for thinking about notions of reality and the production of the subject that works to account for all bodies, human and non-human, in these processes. The research that follows, and the fashion/art work that informs it, reveals possibilities and limitations that come with this mode of thinking about the subject, and expanded collaborative fashion/art practice as queer-feminist work

Analysis of the Liberian Ebola Survivors Support System (ESSS)

A systems theoretical analysis to capture the evolution and transition of the network systems supporting Ebola survivors and their affected communities, during the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak and recovery phases. The qualitative analysis includes a literature review, archival review, and interviews with representatives of key actors operating in strategic action fields. This paper uses a series of Diagrams that visually illustrate the various complex phases and their network changes that occurred and were established during the outbreak. This case analysis provides crucial phase information that both captures the historical events that informed the systems changes, including the development of the Ebola Survivors’ Support System (ESSS). Secondly, this analysis acts as, a model of understanding how disease support networks first emerge and can be better supported in other outbreaks

Exploring an EIT as a tool for accessing sociophonetic knowledge

Elicited imitation tasks (EITs)—tasks that involve repetition of sentence-length stimuli—have received increased attention as tools for measuring general L2 proficiency and implicit knowledge of grammatical features (Kostromitina & Plonsky, 2022). The present study diverges from predecessors by exploring the use of an EIT for accounting for sociophonetic knowledge. Complementing work on the acquisition of Peninsular phonetic/phonological variants (e.g., George, 2014), the present study investigates acquisition of /θ/ by 25 US learners of Spanish studying abroad in a 6-week immersion program in León, Spain. Learners completed an oral monologic role-play task and a 36-item Spanish EIT (Solon et al., 2019) modified to include Peninsular phonetic features, during their first and last weeks abroad. An at-home (AH) group of 15 second-year university Spanish learners completed the same tasks following a similar timeline. The modified EIT included 30 instances of [θ]. Audio-recorded EIT repetitions were assessed in three ways: (1) using Ortega et al.’s (2002) 5-point rubric for an overall proficiency score per learner, (2) for the number of lexical items containing [θ] successfully reproduced (regardless of pronunciation of the phone), and (3) for the number of instances of [θ] reproduced as [θ]. In the oral role-plays, potential contexts for /θ/ were identified (n = 1,230) and coded for realization. Mixed-effects regressions were used to examine change in EIT scores and [θ] usage over time. Preliminary results suggest that learners studying abroad in Spain demonstrated increased ability to process [θ], as indicated by higher rates of repetition of lexical items containing [θ] at the end of the program than the beginning. Similar gains were not observed for AH learners, suggesting that improvement was not only the result of repeating the task. Nonetheless, rates of [θ] production were low even at Time 2. Learners’ increased ability to comprehend and repeat EIT content containing [θ] despite no concomitant increase in production suggests that learners gained sociophonetic knowledge during this short sojourn and that this knowledge gain likely would not have been captured by analyzing production alone. Findings support the utility of EITs as a tool for tracking acquisition of sociolinguistically variable phonetic/phonological features

Playing to Live: Outcome Evaluation of a Community-Based Psychosocial Expressive Arts Program for Children During the Liberian Ebola Epidemic

Background. This paper reviews the efficacy of a community psychosocial arts program focused on building mental health capacity within post-Ebola Liberia. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the outcome effects of two groups using pre- and post-treatment data. We hypothesized that there would be a difference in symptoms pre- and post-treatment, and the longer program would yield more significant results. Methods. There was a total of 870 child participants. Of 40 sites, 24 were selected for a 5-month treatment (TG1) while the remaining 16 sites received 3 months of treatment (TG2). Paired t tests and a mixed-model analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse pre- and post-psychological stress symptoms (PSS) for samples from both groups. Results. Separately, treatment group 1 (TG1) and treatment group 2\u27s (TG2) paired t test yielded significant results (p \u3c 0.001) for the decrease of PSS. The mixed-model ANOVA found that there were significant differences in total pre- and post-test PSS and a significant difference in PSS means over time. Conclusions. Results indicated that there was a statistically significant decrease in reported symptoms in both treatment groups pre- to post-intervention and a significant difference in total symptoms over time. However, the findings do not indicate that the longer programming was statistically different compared to the shorter programming. The study presented had gaps in data, largely due to limits in research during the crisis. However, this paper provides a unique case study for challenges that can be faced for project evaluation in emergency settings

Review: Objects in Air: Artworks and Their Outside around 1900

Book review of Objects in Air: Artworks and Their Outside around 1900 by Margareta Ingrid Christian. University of Chicago Press, 2021. 304 p. ill. ISBN 978-0-226-76477-1 (h/c), $45.00. Reviewed January 2022 by Kristan M. Hanson, Digital Managing Editor, Plant Humanities Initiative, Dumbarton Oaks, [email protected]