The Concerns of Competent Novices during a Mentoring Year

In an innovative group mentoring approach, four experienced midwives mentored four new graduates during their first year of practice. The new graduates were in practice as case-loading registered midwives having completed a three year Bachelor of Midwifery degree. Detailed data about the new graduates' concerns were collected throughout the year of the mentoring project. A range of practice areas—administrative, working environment, professional culture, clinical issues and the mentor group itself—were prominent issues. New graduates were concerned about their own professional development and about relationships with others particularly relationships within the hospital. Technical questions focussed more on craft knowledge that develops through experience than on clinical skills or knowledge. Identifying these concerns provides a foundation for mentors, preceptors and those designing professional development support programmes for the first year of practice. It may be that new graduate midwives educated in a profession with a narrowly defined scope of practice have a different range of concerns to new graduates who have wider scopes of practice. The use of a group model of mentoring for supporting new graduate midwives proved stimulating for mentors and highly supportive of new graduates

Renal Tubular Function in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Renal function is commonly assessed by measurement of glomerular filtration rate (GFR). However, defects in tubular function may still exist in the presence of a normal GFR. In 12 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), 6 of whom had previously been shown to have renal impairment, glomerular and tubular function were studied separately. In 4 patients, all parameters of renal function tested were normal. Impaired tubular function was found in 8 of the 12 patients, including 5 with normal GFR. Defects were noted in the ability to acidify urine in 7 patients and tubular reabsorption of phosphate was reduced in 2. A poor correlation was noted between the presence of renal tubular acidosis and the serum y-globulin level. The pathogenesis of the defect in urinary acidification in SLE and its prognostic significance are discussed.S. Afr. Med. J., 47, 132 (1973)

Honouring the Sacred in Childbirth: a Midwife's Stories of Women's Developing Sense of Self

Thirty years of midwifery practice has shown me the beauty of birthing. After spending time working with a homebirth midwife I had an awakening which affected me deeply, both personally and professionally. I looked on birth in a different light and started recognising new possibilities. I learned new skills and understandings working in a variety of settings during a time of major change for New Zealand midwifery. This experience has led me to this study the aim of which was to explore the relationship between the woman and myself the midwife as I experienced it and understood it in practice. I use an auto/biographical method: reflecting on my own story and on both factual and fictionalised exemplars from my practice. My research led me to the following conclusions. As women prepare for and reflect on their births they often tell stories about themselves based on a mix of recent events interspersed with their ideas and hopes. Telling stories helps women learn about aspects of themselves that reconstruct their identity, leading to a greater integration of their sense of self. Woman-centred midwifery care takes on new meaning when midwives practice midwifery by engaging with women’s narratives. Each woman and her birthing reinforce the sacredness of childbirth. By combining an awareness of sacred possibilities with scientific understandings, midwives offer a bridge so that through childbirth experiences, women can enhance and reconstruct their inner lives. This study indicates that further research on the familiar but undeveloped aspects of ‘everydayness’ in midwifery practice is necessary. In particular, the emotional and spiritual aspects of midwifery deserve greater attention

Group Mentoring of New Graduate Midwives: Emerging Professional Capacity: A Naturalistic Inquiry

This research explores an innovative group mentoring model developed at the request of four newly graduated midwives who were mentored as a group by four experienced midwives. Since virtually all research on mentoring, both internationally and in New Zealand assumes that mentoring is a one-to-one activity, this study aimed to describe how this group mentoring model operated and explore whether it was successful in supporting new midwives to gain confidence. A naturalistic study design was used with a mixed methods approach to collecting and analysing a large amount of richly descriptive data. Data were gathered from records of individual contacts between mentors and new graduates, from a series of interviews with each of the eight participants, and from the actual audio recordings of regular group mentoring meetings across the mentoring year. Simple descriptive analysis of quantitative data and detailed thematic analysis of qualitative data were undertaken. The study found the group mentoring model provided everything that is expected of one-to-one mentoring and the new graduates felt well supported as they gained confidence during their first year in practice as autonomous self-employed midwives. The group model provided new graduates with 24/7 one-to-one mentor support whenever they asked for it. This was found to occur mostly in the first half of the year and was highly valued. The new graduates and the mentors all agreed that the most important part of the model were the regular group meetings. These meetings were entirely focused on day to day experiences that the new graduates chose to present to the group. Analysis of the meeting transcripts showed that the new graduates' issues ranged across the whole scope of practice; that they were sometimes prompted by self-reflection, sometimes by issues to do with relationships with others, and sometimes by a need to discuss technical matters. The mentors' responses were variously supportive; listening and exploring; directing or informing; and questioning or challenging. The group aspect of this mentoring model added a number of features that would not be possible in one-to-one mentoring. The new graduates valued how the group meetings exposed them to multiple perspectives from several mentors. The group meetings modelled a supportive and collegial way of working together that facilitated their emerging professional capacity now and into their future. The group provided a safe yet challenging space: a "stimulating sanctuary" for the new graduates' development. Overall the study found that group mentoring can successfully meet the needs of new graduates and provides several advantages over one-to-one mentoring. Group mentoring may be a more sustainable model than one-to-one, particularly where there are shortages of mentor midwives available. It is a model that promotes a supportive professional midwife culture, contributes to new knowledge in the area and is the preferred approach to mentoring in the future

Isotopic (13C and 14C) tracers in ecosystem respiration

Terrestrial ecosystems are expected to respond to global warming with the very real possibility that they may add to global atmospheric anthropogenic CO[2] emissions, thus exacerbating climate change. Isotopes of carbon in ecosystem respiration provide valuable information regarding the contribution of individual sources. A portable sampling system was developed (MS[3]) incorporating zeolite molecular sieve, which can capture CO[2] for stable and radiocarbon analysis without contamination, fractionation or hysteresis. The sampling system and its application in studies of respiration and carbon cycling, both in situ and ex situ, has the potential to be applied in a wide range of ecosystems. A field experiment was performed to assess the contribution of individual components of a peatland ecosystem (peatland soil and the three main plant functional groups it supported) to total peatland ecosystem respiration. Stable carbon (delta[13]C) analysis of respired CO[2] collected using Exetainers to partition respiration sources had limited use, mainly due to methodological difficulties. A laboratory peat core experiment studied the interactive effects of abiotic regulators: temperature, moisture and substrate quality. All parameters influenced soil carbon decomposition with temperature being the primary regulator of CO[2] fluxes. Interactive effects on decomposition rates were observed, with increased temperature, decreased moisture and reduced substrate quality affecting the largest Q[10] values. The radiocarbon signature of both ecosystem and soil respiration were successfully characterised in the field using MS[3]. Modelling implied there to be a third source of respired CO[2] that contributed to total ecosystem respiration (in addition to plant and soil components). This is believed to be the first time that this third source, plant mediated catotelm CO2, has been directly observed. It is estimated to contribute ~ 20 % of the total peatland ecosystem respiration flux

Development of Mentorship Module and its Feasibility for Community Midwives in Sindh, Pakistan: A Pilot Study

Numerous articles describe the concept of mentorship for providing professional support in midwifery settings in different countries; however, in Pakistan the concept is under developed. Before implementing the concept in the Pakistani context, it was important to first develop a mentorship module and pilot test the idea. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to develop and test a mentorship module to determine its feasibility for educating community midwives about providing mentoring, so that a formal mentorship program could be established in the future. The training aimed to provide skill focused mentorship training to experienced midwives, so that they could perform the role of mentors for newly graduate midwives, in order to support them and build their confidence. The mentorship module was developed with the help of literature review and experts’ suggestion. A structured questionnaire was given to 50 community midwives after they had been provided mentorship training. Community midwives from nineteen districts of Sindh, Pakistan, were surveyed through purposive sampling. All the community midwives agreed that there was a need for mentorship, that the training module was useful, and that they would be able to integrate it into their practice. Over 80% community midwives rated the content of the module as useful, the majority agreed that the total duration of the training (two days) and the length of each session in the training were appropriate. Similarly, all participants reported that the mentoring strategies were helpful. Hence, the mentorship training module was strongly perceived to be feasible and useful by the community midwives of Sindh, Pakistan

Geology of the Neruda quadrangle (H13), Mercury

We present the first geological map of the Neruda Quadrangle (H13), Mercury. H13 is in Mercury’s southern hemisphere between latitudes 22.5°S–65°S, and longitudes 90°E–180° covering a total area of just under 5 million km², equivalent to 6.5% of the planet’s surface. Map digitisation was carried out at scales between 1:300,000 and 1:700,000 for final presentation at 1:3,000,0000, from end-of-mission data products from NASA’s MESSENGER mission. We distinguish three main photogeologic plains units: intercrater, intermediate, and smooth plains. We also distinguish all craters and their materials ≥ 20 km in diameter based on their degradation state. We have completed two versions of the map, one using a three-class crater degradation scheme and one using a five-class crater degradation scheme. In addition, specific geological units were charted for the Rembrandt impact basin. This map has been constructed to provide context and targets for the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury

Interrogating intervention delivery and participants’ emotional states to improve engagement and implementation: A realist informed multiple case study evaluation of Engager

BACKGROUND: 'Engager' is an innovative 'through-the-gate' complex care intervention for male prison-leavers with common mental health problems. In parallel to the randomised-controlled trial of Engager (Trial registration number: ISRCTN11707331), a set of process evaluation analyses were undertaken. This paper reports on the depth multiple case study analysis part of the process evaluation, exploring how a sub-sample of prison-leavers engaged and responded to the intervention offer of one-to-one support during their re-integration into the community. METHODS: To understand intervention delivery and what response it elicited in individuals, we used a realist-informed qualitative multiple 'case' studies approach. We scrutinised how intervention component delivery lead to outcomes by examining underlying causal pathways or 'mechanisms' that promoted or hindered progress towards personal outcomes. 'Cases' (n = 24) were prison-leavers from the intervention arm of the trial. We collected practitioner activity logs and conducted semi-structured interviews with prison-leavers and Engager/other service practitioners. We mapped data for each case against the intervention logic model and then used Bhaskar's (2016) 'DREIC' analytic process to categorise cases according to extent of intervention delivery, outcomes evidenced, and contributing factors behind engagement or disengagement and progress achieved. RESULTS: There were variations in the dose and session focus of the intervention delivery, and how different participants responded. Participants sustaining long-term engagement and sustained change reached a state of 'crises but coping'. We found evidence that several components of the intervention were key to achieving this: trusting relationships, therapeutic work delivered well and over time; and an in-depth shared understanding of needs, concerns, and goals between the practitioner and participants. Those who disengaged were in one of the following states: 'Crises and chaos', 'Resigned acceptance', 'Honeymoon' or 'Wilful withdrawal'. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrate that the 'implementability' of an intervention can be explained by examining the delivery of core intervention components in relation to the responses elicited in the participants. Core delivery mechanisms often had to be 'triggered' numerous times to produce sustained change. The improvements achieved, sustained, and valued by participants were not always reflected in the quantitative measures recorded in the RCT. The compatibility between the practitioner, participant and setting were continually at risk of being undermined by implementation failure as well as changing external circumstances and participants' own weaknesses. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN11707331, Wales Research Ethics Committee, Registered 02-04-2016-Retrospectively registered https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN11707331

Positioning aquatic animals with acoustic transmitters

Geolocating aquatic animals with acoustic tags has been ongoing for decades, relying on the detection of acoustic signals at multiple receivers with known positions to calculate a 2D or 3D position, and ultimately recreate the path of an aquatic animal from detections at fixed stations.This method of underwater geolocation is evolving with new software and hardware options available to help investigators design studies and calculate positions using solvers based predominantly on time-difference-of-arrival and time-of-arrival.We provide an overview of the considerations necessary to implement positioning in aquatic acoustic telemetry studies, including how to design arrays of receivers, test performance, synchronize receiver clocks and calculate positions from the detection data. We additionally present some common positioning algorithms, including both the free open-source solvers and the 'black-box' methods provided by some manufacturers for calculating positions.This paper is the first to provide a comprehensive overview of methods and considerations for designing and implementing better positioning studies that will support users, and encourage further knowledge advances in aquatic systems