Justice Sandra Day O\u27Connor: Token or Triumph from a Feminist Perspective

This Comment will examine the feminist perception of Sandra Day O\u27Connor\u27s record on the Supreme Court on issues affecting women. It will analyze how her decisions have fulfilled and how they have disappointed feminist expectations. In view of her performance on the Court, can Justice Sandra Day O\u27Connor be, considered a token or a triumph for feminists

Justice Sandra Day O\u27Connor: Token or Triumph from a Feminist Perspective

This Comment will examine the feminist perception of Sandra Day O\u27Connor\u27s record on the Supreme Court on issues affecting women. It will analyze how her decisions have fulfilled and how they have disappointed feminist expectations. In view of her performance on the Court, can Justice Sandra Day O\u27Connor be, considered a token or a triumph for feminists

Online healthy lifestyle support in the perinatal period: What do women want and do they use it?

Unhealthy weight gain and retention during pregnancy and postpartum is detrimental to mother and child. Although various barriers limit the capacity for perinatal health care providers (PHCPs) to offer healthy lifestyle counselling, they could guide women to appropriate online resources. This paper presents a project designed to provide online information to promote healthy lifestyles in the perinatal period. Focus groups or interviews were held with 116 perinatal women and 76 PHCPs to determine what online information perinatal women and PHCPs want, in what form, and how best it should be presented. The results indicated that women wanted smartphone applications (apps) linked to trustworthy websites containing short answers to everyday concerns; information on local support services; and personalised tools to assess their nutrition, fitness and weight. Suggestions for improvement in these lifestyle areas should be practical and tailored to the developmental stage of their child. PHCPs wanted evidence-based, practical information, presented in a simple, engaging, interactive form. The outcome was a clinically endorsed website and app that health professionals could recommend. Preliminary evaluation showed that 10.5% of pregnant women in Western Australia signed up to the app. Use of the app appeared to be equitable across urban and rural areas of low to middle socioeconomic status

Engaging Primary Health Care Providers in the Promotion of Healthy Weight Among Young Children: Barriers and Enablers for Policy and Management

Recent national efforts to stem the alarming growth of childhood overweight and obesity in Australia have highlighted the importance of preventative strategies that focus beyond the child-on parents, families, primary health care providers (PHCPs) and child care services. But, while such efforts have to date focused on school-based interventions, once poor eating habits and sedentary lifestyles have set in, a growing body of research is indicating that PHCPs can play a more influential role in monitoring and modifying factors affecting prevention and early intervention in preschool children. This paper presents the findings of a systematic review to: (a) identify key barriers to the effective engagement of PHCPs with parents and child care staff in the promotion of healthy weight among children aged 2-6 years, (b) appraise promising interventions for strengthening the capacity of PHCPs to effectively deal with these barriers, and (c) synthesise policy options to encourage and engage PHCPs. The study draws on the lessons of promising interventions to highlight the urgent need to address organisational, attitudinal, knowledge, skills and training barriers, to facilitate the engagement of PHCPs in different settings-based environments (clinical, child care, home and community)

Ngala Healthy You, Healthy Baby: a personalized online program to support healthy weight in pregnancy and early life

Perinatal maternal obesity is common and has significant child and maternal health consequences. Online resources have the potential to engage young mothers to adopt healthier lifestyles during pregnancy and postpartum. Intercept interviews with 53 pregnant women at antenatal clinics and focus groups with 67 new mothers at mothers’ groups and playgroups were conducted to determine preferred types and formats of online information and support. The expressed needs of women were matched to behaviour change theory to guide development of the Healthy You Healthy Baby website and Smartphone application. A mix of factual and practical online information, self-assessment, goal-setting and feedback in an interactive format is recommended to motivate and support women to achieve healthy lifestyles in the perinatal period. Referral to online resources by health professionals and quality assurance of content is important to increase the confidence of women to act on it

Use of credit by farm families in southern Iowa and northern Missouri

Changing economic and social conditions necessitate adjustment by farm families. For many families, increased farm size and rising levels of consumption have resulted in larger outlays for the farm business as well as for family living. Increasingly, farm families have turned to credit to augment their own funds. Therefore, more information is needed about the extent to which credit is used, the uses to which credit is put and the association, if any, between credit use and selected family and economic characteristics. Such information should be useful to extension educators working with farm families in educational programs, to governmental policymakers or legislators who influence the legal framework affecting lending practices and to lending institutions interested in providing greater service to their clientele.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/specialreports/1032/thumbnail.jp

Decline of vasopressin immunoreactivity and messenger RNA levels in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis following castration

Vasopressinergic (VP) neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) of the rat are regulated by gonadal steroids. Gonadectomy causes the projections of the BNST to lose their VP immunoreactivity gradually over a period lasting more than 2 months. Here we have compared the rate of decline of VP mRNA and VP immunoreactivity in the BNST of adult male rats following castration. In experiment 1, the peak number of VP-immunoreactive cells and the level of VP gene expression were compared in sham-operated controls and at 1, 3, or 8 weeks postcastration. The number of VP-immunoreactive cells was not decreased at 1 week postcastration but was significantly reduced (p \u3c 0.0001) at 3 and 8 weeks postcastration. VP gene expression declined more rapidly, and both the total number of labeled cells (p \u3c 0.0001) and the average number of grains per cell (p \u3c 0.01) were significantly reduced by 1 week postcastration. No VP-expressing cells were detectable at 3 or 8 weeks. The difference in the rate of decline in the number of cells labeled by the two techniques following castration did not appear to be due to colchicine pretreatment. In experiment 2, VP mRNA in the BNST was compared in sham-operated controls or at 1, 3, or 7 d postcastration. A significant decrease (p \u3c 0.01) in the average number of grains per cell was detectable by just 1 d following castration, and the number of labeled cells was significantly reduced (p \u3c 0.001) by 3 d postcastration. These results indicate that the capacity of BNST cells to synthesize VP responds more dynamically to changes in gonadal steroid levels than do levels of VP immunoreactivity. This difference may reflect the delay between VP gene expression and the processing of VP precursor molecules. Alternatively, gonadal steroids may modulate the release of VP from cells in the BNST

Determination of DiazaCon in Quail Feed and Quail Serum by Ion Pair Reversed-Phase Chromatography

Liquid chromatographic (LC) methods were developed for quantitating the potential avian contraceptive DiazaCon in quail feed and serum. DiazaCon was extracted from ground quail feed with basic n-butyl chloride. The n-butyl chloride extract was evaporated to dryness. The DiazaCon residues were dissolved in an aqueous methanolic ion pairing solution and quantitated by LC at 206 nm. Avian sera was combined with an equal volume of a pH 4 aqueous solution of ion pairing reagent and filtered to remove interfering proteins. DiazaCon was quantitated by LC. Mean recoveries for 500 and 2000 ppm fortified feed were 89.1 and 91.0%, respectively. The mean recovery for sera fortified at 5 levels ranging from 35 to 2000 ppm was 84.9%. Method limits of detection were approximately 14 and 13 ppm for feed and sera, respectively