Depressed mood in pregnancy : prevalence and social factors in Cape Town peri-urban settlements

Thesis (MA (Psychology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of antenatal distress in Cape Town periurban settlements, and the social factors associated with it in this population. Participants were 756 pregnant women from Khayelitsha and Mfuleni, Cape Town. Each women was interviewed in her home language using a structured questionnaire which included the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), measures for social support and alcohol use, and questions concerning socio-demographics, intimate partner violence, and the current pregnancy. A threshold score of 14 and above on the EPDS was used to determine antenatal distress. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and bivariate analysis initially, followed by multivariate logistical regression. Results indicated a prevalence of 46% for antenatal distress, which is substantially greater than the prevalence found in high income countries. Women in their first trimester of pregnancy were more likely to experience antenatal distress than were women in their second and third trimesters. The strongest predictors of antenatal distress were poor partner support, intimate partner violence and having a household income below R2000 per month. The high prevalence found in this study has harmful implications for infant health in South Africa, and is reason to suggest that early screening and intervention is crucial. More research is needed to develop and evaluate the effectiveness and scalability of community-based interventions for maternal depression in South African peri-urban settlements, as well as to establish the specific infant outcomes of antenatal distress in this population.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het ten doel om die voorkoms van voorgeboorteangs in buitestedelike nedersettings in Kaapstad te bepaal, sowel as die maatskaplike faktore wat met voorgeboorteangs by dié populasie verband hou. Die studiedeelnemers was 756 swanger vroue van Khayelitsha en Mfuleni, Kaapstad. ʼn Gestruktureerde vraelys is gebruik om met elke vrou ʼn onderhoud in haar huistaal te voer. Die vraelys het die Edinburg-nageboortedepressieskaal (EPDS), maatstawwe vir maatskaplike steun en alkoholgebruik, en vrae oor sosiodemografie, bedmaatgeweld en die vrou se huidige swangerskap ingesluit. ʼn Drempeltelling van 14 en hoër op die EPDS is gebruik om voorgeboorteangs te bepaal. Die data is aanvanklik met behulp van beskrywende statistiek en tweeveranderlike analise ontleed, waarna dit aan meerveranderlike logistiese regressie onderwerp is. Studieresultate toon ʼn 46%-voorkoms van voorgeboorteangs, wat beduidend hoër is as dié in hoëinkomstelande. Vroue in hul eerste trimester van swangerskap blyk meer geneig te wees om voorgeboorteangs te ervaar as vroue in hul tweede en derde trimester. Die sterkste voorspellers van voorgeboorteangs is swak ondersteuning van lewensmaats, bedmaatgeweld en ʼn huishoudelike inkomste onder R2 000 per maand. Die hoë voorkomssyfer van voorgeboorteangs waarop die studie dui, het nadelige implikasies vir babagesondheid in Suid-Afrika, en maak vroeë toetsing en ingryping noodsaaklik. Verdere navorsing word vereis om die doeltreffendheid en skaleerbaarheid van gemeenskapsgegronde ingrypings vir moederdepressie in Suid-Afrikaanse buitestedelike nedersettings te ontwikkel en te beoordeel, sowel as om die bepaalde uitwerkings van voorgeboorteangs op pasgeborenes in dié populasie te bepaa

Refugees and asylum seekers living in the Australian Community: the importance of work rights and employment support

While Australian legislation allows for the mandatory detention of asylum seekers arriving without a valid visa, in recent years the Australian Government has released thousands from immigration detention prior to their protection claims being finalised. This article outlines the results of interviews with eleven men who had been released into such community-based arrangements after long periods of immigration detention. The major challenge for most of the men who had been granted the right to work upon their release was securing employment, while being denied the right to work was the major challenge for those released without this right. This article explores the social and personal benefits that employment can offer asylum seekers and refugees and the implications it has for integration into their host country

Reactive oxygen species induce virus-independent MAVS-oligomerization in systemic lupus erythematosus

The increased expression of genes induced by type I interferon (IFN) is characteristic of viral infections and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We showed that mitochondrial antiviral signaling (MAVS) protein, which normally forms a complex with retinoic acid gene I (RIG-I)–like helicases during viral infection, was activated by oxidative stress independently of RIG-I helicases. We found that chemically generated oxidative stress stimulated the formation of MAVS oligomers, which led to mitochondrial hyperpolarization and decreased adenosine triphosphate production and spare respiratory capacity, responses that were not observed in similarly treated cells lacking MAVS. Peripheral blood lymphocytes of SLE patients also showed spontaneous MAVS oligomerization that correlated with the increased secretion of type I IFN and mitochondrial oxidative stress. Furthermore, inhibition of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) by the mitochondria-targeted antioxidant MitoQ prevented MAVS oligomerization and type I IFN production. ROS-dependent MAVS oligomerization and type I IFN production were reduced in cells expressing the MAVS-C79F variant, which occurs in 30% of sub-Saharan Africans and is linked with reduced type I IFN secretion and milder disease in SLE patients. Patients expressing the MAVS-C79F variant also had reduced amounts of oligomerized MAVS in their plasma compared to healthy controls. Together, our findings suggest that oxidative stress–induced MAVS oligomerization in SLE patients may contribute to the type I IFN signature that is characteristic of this syndrome

Poverty and Paternal Education Associated with Infant Safe Sleep Intentions in a Peri-Urban Community in Ecuador

Ecuador’s annual mortality rate from SIDS is 0.4 per 100 000 people, 4 times higher than neighboring countries Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. Modifying the infant sleep environment toward safe practice has been demonstrated to be the most effective risk reduction strategy in reducing mortality from SIDS and little is known about sleep practices in Ecuador. The purpose of this study is to describe baseline infant sleep intentions of pregnant women in a peri-urban, low resource community in Ecuador. We also aim to identify demographic and psychosocial factors associated with suboptimal sleep practices in this context to develop long-term strategies to identify infants with high risk for SIDS/SUID. A cross-sectional study design was employed with 100 women in their third trimester of pregnancy. The majority of women were partnered (82%), both parents had approximately 8 years of education, and over half reported that their incomes met or exceeded their basic needs (55%). Significant predictors of safer sleep intention included years of paternal education (P = .019) and income meeting their basic needs (P = .0049). For each additional year of paternal education, families were 23% more likely to report safer intended infant sleep practices. Compared to those whose income did not allow for basic needs, those who had sufficient income to meet (or exceed) basic needs were 425% more likely to report safer intended sleep practices. Targeted interventions to high-risk populations may reduce the burden of SIDS/SUID in this community

MultiModN- Multimodal, Multi-Task, Interpretable Modular Networks

Predicting multiple real-world tasks in a single model often requires a particularly diverse feature space. Multimodal (MM) models aim to extract the synergistic predictive potential of multiple data types to create a shared feature space with aligned semantic meaning across inputs of drastically varying sizes (i.e. images, text, sound). Most current MM architectures fuse these representations in parallel, which not only limits their interpretability but also creates a dependency on modality availability. We present MultiModN, a multimodal, modular network that fuses latent representations in a sequence of any number, combination, or type of modality while providing granular real-time predictive feedback on any number or combination of predictive tasks. MultiModN's composable pipeline is interpretable-by-design, as well as innately multi-task and robust to the fundamental issue of biased missingness. We perform four experiments on several benchmark MM datasets across 10 real-world tasks (predicting medical diagnoses, academic performance, and weather), and show that MultiModN's sequential MM fusion does not compromise performance compared with a baseline of parallel fusion. By simulating the challenging bias of missing not-at-random (MNAR), this work shows that, contrary to MultiModN, parallel fusion baselines erroneously learn MNAR and suffer catastrophic failure when faced with different patterns of MNAR at inference. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first inherently MNAR-resistant approach to MM modeling. In conclusion, MultiModN provides granular insights, robustness, and flexibility without compromising performance.Comment: Accepted as a full paper at NeurIPS 2023 in New Orleans, US

Modular Clinical Decision Support Networks (MoDN)-Updatable, interpretable, and portable predictions for evolving clinical environments.

Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) have the potential to improve and standardise care with probabilistic guidance. However, many CDSS deploy static, generic rule-based logic, resulting in inequitably distributed accuracy and inconsistent performance in evolving clinical environments. Data-driven models could resolve this issue by updating predictions according to the data collected. However, the size of data required necessitates collaborative learning from analogous CDSS's, which are often imperfectly interoperable (IIO) or unshareable. We propose Modular Clinical Decision Support Networks (MoDN) which allow flexible, privacy-preserving learning across IIO datasets, as well as being robust to the systematic missingness common to CDSS-derived data, while providing interpretable, continuous predictive feedback to the clinician. MoDN is a novel decision tree composed of feature-specific neural network modules that can be combined in any number or combination to make any number or combination of diagnostic predictions, updatable at each step of a consultation. The model is validated on a real-world CDSS-derived dataset, comprising 3,192 paediatric outpatients in Tanzania. MoDN significantly outperforms 'monolithic' baseline models (which take all features at once at the end of a consultation) with a mean macro F1 score across all diagnoses of 0.749 vs 0.651 for logistic regression and 0.620 for multilayer perceptron (p < 0.001). To test collaborative learning between IIO datasets, we create subsets with various percentages of feature overlap and port a MoDN model trained on one subset to another. Even with only 60% common features, fine-tuning a MoDN model on the new dataset or just making a composite model with MoDN modules matched the ideal scenario of sharing data in a perfectly interoperable setting. MoDN integrates into consultation logic by providing interpretable continuous feedback on the predictive potential of each question in a CDSS questionnaire. The modular design allows it to compartmentalise training updates to specific features and collaboratively learn between IIO datasets without sharing any data

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 1, Edition 2

Contents: Developing Subject Knowledge for Secondary English teaching during a pandemic by Fiona Darby Are teachers trained to deliver the kind of education needed for the twentyfirst century? by Joanne Hill and Simon Spencer Reflections on preparing university staff for a non-judgemental, inquirybased model of peer observation: opportunities and challenges by Ilana Pressick, Kath MinettWaller, Joanne Thomas and Matt O’Leary How prepared are primary pre-service teachers in delivering physical education as they approach their NQT Year? by Grant Huddleston Evaluation of a Social Constructivist approach to education: How questioning, scaffolding and modelling can be used to address said misconception by Siobhan Taylor Current Enquiry and Practice Classroom Behaviour: The relationship between self-efficacy and its impact on newly qualified teachers by Izaaz Varachhia Tune-Up Tuesday: Re-valuing the role of arts in education by Dr. Chris Bolton and Adele Waites The Problems with PEE-ing by Nina Matthews ‘Bringing Construction into the Classroom’ – A trainee teacher’s experience of developing the Construction and Built Environment programme at Halesowen College by Alexandra Roche The Importance of Physical Education within the National Curriculum by Oliver Quinton Individual Enquiry and Scholarship Tackling the issue of Race on pupil’s attainment and wellbeing by Faizah Mehmood A critical analysis of the aims of the English Baccalaureate, and its implications for professional practice and student learning: a conference paper by David Weber Being a Gay Male PE teacher: a biographical insight by Andrew Prestidge How much do you really know about eating disorders? by Carolina Mountford Too blessed to be stressed: What are the implications of work related stress on teacher retention? by Elise Jones Be Wary Of Hattie’s Use Of Meta-Analyses And Effect Sizes by Nikki Booth UK Education and the Covid-19 Pandemic 2020-21 by Megan Daly From mathematician to all-rounder - an autoethnographic account of training to teach and evolving identities by Beth Garret

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 1, Edition 1

Welcome to the Birmingham City University (BCU) Education Journal Magazine (EJM). We are excited to be publishing ten fantastic articles from across our education degrees and partnership in this edition. As we are all aware, 2020 has proven to be a very challenging year for everybody, regardless of who they are and what they do. Education in particular has faced its own challenges, remaining open throughout a national lockdown and for schools to plan for this within a very short time frame. How schools move forwards with current social distancing guidelines has also proven to be challenging; so hopefully this publication can offer some support, ideas and suggestions on how you could reflect and develop your own practice moving forwards. Contents: The Role of the ITT Subject Mentor by Kerry Taylor Facilitating Mentoring in Secondary Physical Education: A Mentor’s Perspective by Mike Stimpson How can trainee teachers manage pupil behaviour and differentiate appropriately to ensure effective progress is made by all pupils? by Kelly Slade Economies of Performance, Ecologies of Practice and Communities of Discovery: A collaborative approach to support Newly Qualified Teachers and their teacher identity by Dr. Chris Bolton Think POSH and use SPACE by Grant Huddleston The Rise of the ‘Tweecher’ by Kelly Davey-Nicklin The Gordian Knot of Teaching: Lockdown by Jessica Murtagh Expanding Low-Ability Students Vocabulary via Vygotsky’s Principles by Jasmin Gill There’s Always an Alternative by Stephen Sharp Academic Ableism in Higher Education by Dr. Shrehan Lynch & Dr. John Mackli

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 1, Edition 3

Contents: Eight reasons why contributing to the journal is worthwhile by Grant Huddleston My approach to the pastoral life of the school: a biographical journey towards becoming an effective pastoral lead by Nicky McManus Variation between Policy and Practice? A Critical Examination of Variation Theory in Primary Mathematics Policy and Practice by Declan Forde To what extent does children’s literature, written to address sensitive topics, support the emotional well-being of children during personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education in UK primary schools? Part One by Katie Goodacre To what extent does children’s literature, written to address sensitive topics, support the emotional well-being of children during personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education in UK primary schools? Part Two by Katie Goodacre What can you say without even saying it? By Emily Marsden Current Enquiry and Practice English as an Additional Language: My Journey of Training to Teach by Airina Trincheri Gordon Commonly heard abbreviations in English schools: A help sheet for new teachers and teachers with EAL by Grant Huddleston Teaching and Assessing Early Acquisition by Rebecca Harrison-Brandon Should we app-prove digital parental communication? By Emily Marsden Differing approaches to the education of five to seven year olds: A comparison of England and Estonia by Laura Williams Individual Enquiry and Scholarship The Introduction of School Resource Management: How the government is changing the way schools set their budgets by Ian Dawes Overcoming colour blindness in the classroom- an inquiry into race and ethnicity in practice by Nancy Ling Where are tomorrow’s female scientists? By Harriet Field Involving everyday machines in computing education by Alex Ghimic