A qualitative evaluation of home based contraceptive and sexual health care for teenage mothers

This paper reports on the findings from a qualitative study exploring the experiences of teenage mothers using a nurse-led, home-based contraceptive service designed to prevent repeat unplanned pregnancies. The aim was to understand if, and how the service was effective in equipping teenage mothers to make informed choices about contraception, thus preventing a second pregnancy. Unplanned teenage pregnancy remains a significant focus of health and social policy in the United Kingdom (UK). Despite the long-term pattern of declining conception rates, the UK continues to report higher rates than comparable countries elsewhere in Europe. Current estimates suggest that approximately one fifth of births amongst under 18’s are repeat pregnancies (Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group, 2009). Services that are designed to reduce second unplanned pregnancies are an important element in promoting teenage sexual health. However, there has been no UK research that explores this kind of service and the experiences of service users. We conducted a qualitative interview study. From 2013–2014 we interviewed 40 teenage mothers who had engaged with the nurse-led, home-based contraceptive service. The data demonstrates that the service was effective in preventing repeat pregnancies in a number of cases. Among the aspects of the service which were found to contribute to its effectiveness were privacy, convenience, flexibility, appropriately timed access, the non-judgemental attitude of staff and ongoing support

A study of the anatomical and physiological effects of the toxicity of galactose on seedlings

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Kansas, Botany, 1917. ; Includes bibliographical references

Why Did Gen Z Quit?: Reorienting Toward Long Term Employment in Social Justice

Our current orientation toward work is failing members of Generation Z (GenZ) working to decrease suffering in their communities (i.e. social workers, housing case managers, and nurses). GenZ was born between 1997-2012 (American Psychological Association [APA], 2018). GenZ adults who completed four years of college are just beginning to enter the workforce, yet they are already burning out. The current orientations of GenZ focus on drawing meaning from career only, workism and grind culture, negative emotions, cognitive distortions, and place an over emphasis on the individual. This paper offers a reorientation using the science of well-being, positive psychology. I suggest that this reorientation needs to widen sources of meaning, re-engage Generation Z employees to seek positive emotions, redefine success and achievement, and prioritize relationships. This reorientation will allow GenZ employees working to decrease suffering in their communities to avoid burnout and to stay in their chosen fields for longer. This is good not only for the employees but for their organizations and the communities they serve

Identifying the impact of G-quadruplexes on Affymetrix 3' arrays using cloud computing.

A tetramer quadruplex structure is formed by four parallel strands of DNA/ RNA containing runs of guanine. These quadruplexes are able to form because guanine can Hoogsteen hydrogen bond to other guanines, and a tetrad of guanines can form a stable arrangement. Recently we have discovered that probes on Affymetrix GeneChips that contain runs of guanine do not measure gene expression reliably. We associate this finding with the likelihood that quadruplexes are forming on the surface of GeneChips. In order to cope with the rapidly expanding size of GeneChip array datasets in the public domain, we are exploring the use of cloud computing to replicate our experiments on 3' arrays to look at the effect of the location of G-spots (runs of guanines). Cloud computing is a recently introduced high-performance solution that takes advantage of the computational infrastructure of large organisations such as Amazon and Google. We expect that cloud computing will become widely adopted because it enables bioinformaticians to avoid capital expenditure on expensive computing resources and to only pay a cloud computing provider for what is used. Moreover, as well as financial efficiency, cloud computing is an ecologically-friendly technology, it enables efficient data-sharing and we expect it to be faster for development purposes. Here we propose the advantageous use of cloud computing to perform a large data-mining analysis of public domain 3' arrays

Effects of genetic selection for milk production on energy status and reproductive efficiency of high- and average-producing dairy cows

Two lines of Holstein cows resulting from a 20-year genetic selection project that used high and average sires chosen only for predicted differences in milk were used (high n = 10, average n = 10). Cows were on experiment from parturition (d 1) until d 75. Blood samples were obtained via jugular venipuncture daily for the first 2 wk, then 3 x per wk thereafter. Cows were milked and observed for estrous activity twice daily. Rectal palpation of the uterus and ovaries were conducted twice weekly, and cows were bred on any visual estrus after 50 d postpartum. Cows were fed a total mixed ration with feed intakes being determined daily and cows being weighed 3 x per wk. Biopsies of liver tissue were obtained on d 5, 15, and 30. Milk production on a 305-2X-M.E. basis was 10,814 kg and 6,912 kg for the high and average groups, respectively. No differences were observed in the interval from parturition to uterine involution, or first ovulation, or in the length of the first luteal phase between the two groups. Days to first visual estrus and number of ovulations before first visual estrus was greater (P \u3c.05) for the high versus the average group (66 d vs. 43 d and 1.6 vs..7), respectively. Energy balance (Mcal/d) was less positive (P \u3c.05) for the high versus the average group during wks 1, 2, 10, and 11. Feed intake as a percent of body weight was greater for the high versus the average group during wks 6, 7, and 10. Body weight loss from calving was greater (P \u3c.05) for the high versus the average group during wks 3, 4, 5, and 11. Gross efficiency (4% fat corrected milk/dry matter intake) was greater for the high versus the average group throughout the study (P \u3c.05). Glucose concentration was lowest during wk 2 for both groups, and increased throughout the remainder of the experiment. Non-esterified fatty acids and beta-hydroxybutyrate were greatest for both groups during wk 1 and 2, respectively, and decreased linearly thereafter. Liver triglyceride content was greatest and liver glycogen content was lowest at d 15 postpartum for all cows. Liver triglyceride content was not associated with any reproductive measurements. Thus, these data support the concept that high milk production is involved in suppression of estrous behavior. Energy status data suggests that the high group was more metabolically challenged during early lactation

Do structured methods help eco-innovation: An evaluation of the product ideas tree diagram

This paper reports on the first test of the Product Ideas Tree diagram (PIT): a structured method aimed to help Eco-innovation. The PIT diagram structures ideas output from chaotic idea generating sessions. This study compared four ways of conducting an Eco-innovation workshop. The results show that structured methods help Eco-innovation by improving the constructive communication between the participants. Further development of the PIT diagram promises to contribute several new approaches to sustainable product and process design

The Bridge to Inclusion: An Appreciative Strategic Planning Process for the Cultural Awareness Coalition of Midland, Michigan

Inclusive communities are places where all citizens feel a sense of acceptance and belonging. In Midland, MI, a dedicated group of citizens has made a community-wide culture of inclusion their priority. These are the members of the Midland Cultural Awareness Coalition (CAC), a community-based initiative which has attracted a diverse group of stakeholders from a broad cross-section of Midland County. This spring, CAC leaders have collaborated with a team of graduate students (Team Black) enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology program (MAPP). As part of their semester-long course in Applying Positive Interventions in Institutions, Team Black identified CAC’s organizational strengths, identified opportunities, and drew upon their knowledge of positive psychology to create an application that would best support the CAC in pursuit of their vision. The team conducted a situation analysis and researched the academic literature in the fields of coalition effectiveness, goal-setting, inclusion and diversity, bonding and bridging social capital, psychological safety and psychological capital. Team Black recommends the CAC embark upon an Appreciative Inquiry-informed strategic planning process. This process will empower the coalition, engage the community, and provide a bridge from where the CAC is today, to where they hope to be tomorrow. The desired outcomes of this process include: engaging a broader network of stakeholders, creating a common language around inclusion, clarifying the organization’s goal hierarchy, and establishing clear priorities for investing the coalition’s limited human and financial resources

Dioptric power differences in prescribing the Acuvue Advance silicone hydrogel lens

Background: Based on anecdotal evidence it was thought that in fitting Acuvue Advance contact lenses, more plus power is needed than would be expected from the vertex corrected spectacle prescription. Methods: We looked at 127 records of patients who had been fitted with the Acuvue Advance contact lens and compared their spherical equivalent spectacle correction with the power of lens dispensed to the patients. Discussion: We found that final prescription powers tended to be within+/- 0.50 Diopters of the spherical equivalent spectacle correction. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that it was as equally likely for the contact lens prescription to deviate in the minus direction as in the plus. Conclusion: From our results, it is apparent that our anecdotal evidence was faulty and there is not a statistically significant difference between the spectacle prescriptions and the final contact lens prescriptions of the patients in the study. Therefore, an over refraction is needed to pick the optimum lens for any contact lens candidate

Self-service infrastructure container for data intensive application

Cloud based scientific data management - storage, transfer, analysis, and inference extraction - is attracting interest. In this paper, we propose a next generation cloud deployment model suitable for data intensive applications. Our model is a flexible and self-service container-based infrastructure that delivers - network, computing, and storage resources together with the logic to dynamically manage the components in a holistic manner. We demonstrate the strength of our model with a bioinformatics application. Dynamic algorithms for resource provisioning and job allocation suitable for the chosen dataset are packaged and delivered in a privileged virtual machine as part of the container. We tested the model on our private internal experimental cloud that is built on low-cost commodity hardware. We demonstrate the capability of our model to create the required network and computing resources and allocate submitted jobs. The results obtained shows the benefits of increased automation in terms of both a significant improvement in the time to complete a data analysis and a reduction in the cost of analysis. The algorithms proposed reduced the cost of performing analysis by 50% at 15 GB of data analysis. The total time between submitting a job and writing the results after analysis also reduced by more than 1 hr at 15 GB of data analysis