Delivering Quality Care: The Roles and Future of Midwives in Southern California

The United States is ranked 27th in the world for maternal mortality, yet spends twice as much on maternity care services as countries with better maternal health indicators. Stuck in a technocratic and physician-dominated maternity care system, the U.S. depends on expensive technologies to control birth out of fear of pain and litigation, costing Americans billions of dollars and depriving women of the opportunity to have a transformative birth experience. Through an analysis of the medicalization of birth and the current biomedical model in birth, in conjunction with open-ended interviews with 5 hospital midwives and 3 homebirth midwives, the benefits and challenges of incorporating a midwifery model of care into our maternity services are explored. The midwifery model emphasizes that birth is not pathology and that psychosocial factors play a large role in birth outcomes. Basing their practice on collaboration, education, and support, midwives empower women, avoid unnecessary interventions, and offer a lower cost and higher quality care alternative. The current monopoly of women’s health services by physicians is unsustainable. Incorporating midwives into the maternity care team could provide a sustainable alternative with the caliber of maternity care services that U.S. women and families deserve

Do No Harm: The Challenge of Protecting Civilians from the IED Threat in South-central Somalia

In many countries, improvised explosive devices (IED), including improvised landmines, now constitute more of a threat to civilians than factory-manufactured landmines and other conventional weapons. The Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor 2016 reported that the total number of casualties from victim-operated IEDs, which act in a similar manner to anti-personnel mines, increased from 1,075 in 2014 to 1,331 in 2015, the highest annual total of IED casualties recorded since 1999. In response to this, humanitarian mine action organizations are expanding their scope of activities to include IED awareness for civilians either as a stand-alone activity or by integrating messages on IEDs into traditional mine risk education (MRE) sessions. This article explores the protection concerns related to the conduct of any educational activities on IEDs, with a particular focus on south-central Somalia. The article also discusses the challenges that exist for humanitarian organizations to successfully plan and implement IED awareness while upholding the principle of “do no harm.” Furthermore, the article argues that there is a need to recognize that educational activities related to IEDs must be approached with methodologies, messages, and materials specific to these devices, as opposed to simply copying those that are considered to be effective for MRE

The impact of human activity on sedimentary stored carbon levels within a mangrove forest

The objectives of this study were to examine the impact of human activity on organic content levels in mangrove sediment. Sediment samples and forest structure data from four sites in Utila, Honduras ranging in degradation levels were recorded and analyzed. Results indicated that forest structure differences are likely influenced more by environmental factors and setting differences than by human impacts and degradation. Additionally, the sediment from the most impacted sites had the greatest levels of organic content, while sediment from the least impacted, marine protected area, had a significantly lower average organic content level. These findings have noteworthy implications for conservation, as the sites that are being dredged and cleared are also those with the highest organic content levels. Ultimately, the findings of this study suggest an urgent need for the conservation of sites that have previously been overlooked and continuously degraded

Defining the Proper Operating Time for the Septa Extractor

Anionic polymerizations are a common type of reaction used to produce synthetic rubber. During these reactions, it is necessary to charge initiators, modifiers, and other substances, through pressurized containers that are sealed with rubber septa. These septa prevent oxygen and moisture from entering the pressurized container, and the reactor, though they need to be cleaned before use to remove other impurities. Currently a glass Soxhlet Extractor is used to remove such impurities, and though effective, it has a limited capacity, so it has to run frequently. This limitation led to the commissioning of the Septa Extractor, which is an automated process unit designed to perform the same cleaning function on a larger scale. A standard anionic polymerization to produce a polybutadiene will be used to assess the differences between the 6 types of septa, obtained commercially and prepared in-house. Molecular weight and vinyl content of the product as well as the conversion of the monomer will be compared to determine the importance of impurity removal from the septa and the optimal extraction approach. The project\u27s main goal is to determine the required operating time for the Septa Extractor Unit and to identify whether commercially available alternatives are acceptable

How Does Context Shape Comedy as a Successful Social Criticism as Demonstrated by Eddie Murphy’s SNL Sketch “White Like Me?”

This thesis explores the theory of comedy as social criticism through an interpretive investigation. For comedy to be a potent criticism it is important for the audience to understand the context surrounding the sketch. Without understanding the context the sketch still has the ability to be humorous, but the critique is harder to acknowledge. “White Like Me” as performed by Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live will be used as an example for understanding the social criticisms presented in the sketch. This will be descriptively analyzed by dissecting the three major jokes shown and then, to conclude the thesis, there will be a discussion of the dangers of not understanding context in comedy

What Are the Barriers Which Discourage 15-16 Year-Old Girls from Participating in Team Sports and How Can We Overcome Them?

Given the clear benefits of regular physical activity (such as reduced risks of cardiovascular disease and obesity, as well as other benefits including those related to mental health), exploration of the reasons that adolescent girls give for not taking part in team sports may be particularly valuable for enhancing later rates of participation. We combined questionnaires and semistructured interviews to assess the barriers that prevent 15-16-year-old girls from participating in extracurricular team games and what can be done to overcome these barriers and improve physical activity levels. Four barriers became prominent as to why girls in this sample do not participate: Internal Factors, Existing Stereotypes, Other Hobbies and Teachers. Methods to overcome these barriers were identified; changing teachers’ attitudes and shifting the media’s focus away from male sport. Following the successful summer Olympics and Paralympics in the UK, and the resulting positive focus on some of the nation’s female athletes, a shift in focus may be possible. However, this needs to be maintained to allow girls more opportunities, role models and motivation to participate in sport

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it?” An inquiry concerning the understanding of child-robot interaction.

Ethical standpoints regarding robots for children are polarized, yet there is insufficient evidence to substantiate either position. This is compounded by the multiplicity of lenses through which child-robot interactions are investigated. This paper explores implications for translating knowledge from robotics to developmental psychology. The concept of a ‘care-receiving robot’ is a case in point, favorably reviewed here though the manner of its testing discloses the need for a conceptual framework that takes into robotics, processes of child development, sociocultural expectancies about optimal development, and factors affecting research priorities

Rewriting the story : videogames within the Post-Gamergate Society

English honors thesisStaring through the scope in Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2007), as you navigate through the boggy swamps of some exotic jungle, there is never any doubt that you are in control. The operator's thumbs roll over the toggles of the controller signaling to the consul how the character on screen must move. By enacting actions within the real world, players affect the actions of the avatar within the game world. To any well-versed videogame player, this is common knowledge; when one plays a videogame it is to be engaged within the world of the game and to ultimately achieve the programmed goal of the game

Making the Fictional Believable: Mock Documentary Imagery in The War Game

One particular mock documentary film that exemplifies imagery’s ability to help viewers suspend disbelief is Peter Watkins’ The War Game (1965), a depiction of the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Britain shot in black and white. The film draws from the British film traditions of both documentary and science fiction by exhibiting a tension between iconography and spectacle. Film, as its most basic function, both tells a story and describes the elements of that story using images, and by doing so can blur the line between fiction and reality. Andrew Higson states that an image can be used either to narrate or describe; if it is narrating, it is iconographic and only part of a whole meaning, and if it is describing, then the single image is a spectacle—enough in itself to be complete (135). A mock documentary applies the aesthetics of a documentary to a fictional setting and story, using images to make the fictional believable. However, The War Game goes a step further, adding spectacular images that have their roots in science fiction. Narration and description, the two seemingly contradictory uses of imagery in film, are actually complimentary in The War Game’s unique depiction of realistic yet fantastic disaster. I propose to explore this mock documentary’s use of images as drawing from two earlier cinematic movements: Italian Neorealism and British Kitchen Sink Realism. In the years preceding The War Game, disaster movies such as Gorgo (1961