The role of tumor necrosis factor-α and natural killer cells in uterine artery function and pregnancy outcome in the stroke prone spontaneously hypertensive rat

Women with chronic hypertension are at increased risk of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. We have previously characterized the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHRSP) as a model of deficient uterine artery function and adverse pregnancy outcome compared with the control Wistar–Kyoto. The activation of the immune system plays a role in hypertension and adverse pregnancy outcome. Therefore, we investigated the role of tumor necrosis factor-[alpha] in the SHRSP phenotype in an intervention study using etanercept (0.8 mg/kg SC) at gestational days 0, 6, 12, and 18 in pregnant SHRSP compared with vehicle-treated controls (n=6). Etanercept treatment significantly lowered systolic blood pressure after gestational day 12 and increased litter size in SHRSP. At gestational day 18, etanercept improved the function of uterine arteries from pregnant SHRSP normalizing the contractile response and increasing endothelium-dependent relaxation, resulting in increased pregnancy-dependent diastolic blood flow in the uterine arteries. We identified that the source of excess tumor necrosis factor-[alpha] in the SHRSP was a pregnancy-dependent increase in peripheral and placental CD3– CD161+ natural killer cells. Etanercept treatment also had effects on placental CD161+ cells by reducing the expression of CD161 receptor, which was associated with a decrease in cytotoxic granzyme B expression. Etanercept treatment improves maternal blood pressure, pregnancy outcome, and uterine artery function in SHRSP by antagonizing signaling from excess tumor necrosis factor-[alpha] production and the reduction of granzyme B expression in CD161+ natural killer cells in SHRSP

Representing blackness : MOVE, the media, and the city of Philadelphia

In recent decades, black American political scholars have addressed the absence of trans formative societal change in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement. The civil rights initiatives of the 1960s and 1970s pledged racial equality and economic redistribution resulting from equitable, formal, political participation. For many, this promise remains unfulfilled. This thesis asserts that part of the problematic relates to a lack oftheorisation regarding differentiation within the black 'community.' Specifically, it is concerned with a group of black activists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called MOVE, and the manner in which its emergence complicated a unitary conception of black community in the 1980s. Formed on the cusp of the Reagan revolution, which signalled a retrenchment of civil rights initiatives nationally, combined with the election of a new cadre of black politicians at the municipallevel-incIuding Philadelphia, MOVE signifies the tenuous position in which these politicians found themselves during the Reagan era. Thus, Philadelphia's first black American mayor, W. Wilson Goode, occupies a central role in understanding the conflicting demands with which this new crop of municipal officials had to contend during this politically volatile time period. Disabled from the task of simply performing their required duties, these men and women were the most accessible representatives of America's 'black community,' and thus embodied the most positive as well as the most negative aspects of the black American population. Therefore, their job description implicitly referenced their capacity to juggle the demands of being black in America. This thesis will also investigate MOVE's representation in the print news media, as it received extensive coverage in the Philadelphia press. Through an analysis of three separate, local newspapers, this study attends to the racialised discourses characterising the group, thereby revealing a state of general anxiety regarding the place of blacks in American society. In this, a consideration of the media's impact upon Mayor Wilson Goode's career becomes a necessity, as the public's perception of his political suitability became inextricably linked with the fate of the MOVE members. Therefore, I attempt to determine how MOVE became 'news,' and in tum, how the group and officials in Philadelphia's city administration succeeded in mobilising the media as a resource for their own ends. Considering MOVE's informal political strategies in tandem with the bureaucracy of formal municipal politics presents an opportunity to address the limitations of both electoral and cultural politics for the black population generally, as well as the persistent problem of political 'representation' within this context. This thesis contributes to knowledge in black American cultural and electoral politics; social movements; the 'Sociology of the Negro' sub-discipline; the media and its role in conceptualising and coping with racial difference; and theories of blackness, liberalism and multiculturalism

Reproductive planning, vitamin knowledge and use, and lifestyle risks of women attending pregnancy care with a severe mental illness

Objective Women with severe mental illnesses are a vulnerable population and little is known about their reproductive planning needs. The aim of our study was to describe rates of unintended pregnancies, postpartum contraception, identify use and knowledge of prenatal/pregnancy vitamins and identify modifiable lifestyle risks. Design Mixed methods study incorporating a cross-sectional survey and prospective pregnancy data collection Setting A multidisciplinary antenatal clinic in Australia Method Thirty-eight pregnant women with severe mental illnesses: schizophrenia, schizoaffective, bipolar and severe post-traumatic stress disorder Main outcome measures Unintended pregnancy rates, immediate postpartum contraception, use of prenatal and pregnancy vitamins and knowledge sources, obesity, and use and cessation rates for smoking, and substances, and comorbid medical conditions Results Overall 42% of women had unintended pregnancy, with those with schizophrenia at most risk (56%). A long acting reversible contraception was inserted in 5 women (13%), with 45% having no immediate contraception prescribed prior to postnatal discharge. Women's main source of vitamin supplementation for pregnancy was from general practitioners. Prenatal folic acid use occurred in 37%, with rates differing for those with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (52%) and schizophrenia (25%). Vitamin deficiencies occurred in pregnancy, with iron deficiency (ferritin Discussion Addressing gaps in use of effective contraception, proactive reproductive planning and lifestyle management may improve outcomes for women with mental illnesses and their babies.Peer reviewe

A Systematic Review of the Literature on Early Vocalizations and Babbling Patterns in Young Children

Children’s speech development begins in infancy. The pattern of this development has been explored in studies over a number of years using a range of research methodology and approaches to investigation. A systematic review of the existing literature was carried out to determine the collective contribution of this literature to our understanding of early vocalizations and babbling through the period 9 to 18 months. Eight bibliographic databases were searched as well as the Cochrane library. Thirteen studies were identified for inclusion, which were mostly longitudinal observational case series. The review identified progressive increases in the complexity and volume of infants’ early vocalizations through the period. It also found a broad order of phonological acquisition. Although the studies in this review demonstrated marked individual variation, the review provides indicative patterns of development which can be used as a basis to explore relationships with later speech development in future studies. </jats:p

Quality of care and health professional burnout: narrative literature review.

PURPOSE: Quality of care and health professional burnout are important issues in their own right, however, relatively few studies have examined both. The purpose of this paper is to explore quality of care and health professional burnout in hospital settings. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The paper is a narrative literature review of quality of care and health professional burnout in hospital settings published in peer-reviewed journals between January 2000 and March 2013. Papers were identified via a search of PsychInfo, PubMed, Embase and CINNAHL electronic databases. In total, 30 papers which measured and/or discussed both quality of care and health professional burnout were identified. FINDINGS: The paper provides insight into the key health workforce-planning issues, specifically staffing levels and workloads, which impact upon health professional burnout and quality of care. The evidence from the review literature suggests that health professionals face heavier and increasingly complex workloads, even when staffing levels and/or patient-staff ratios remain unchanged. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The narrative literature review suggests that weak retention rates, high turnover, heavy workloads, low staffing levels and/or staffing shortages conspire to create a difficult working environment for health professionals, one in which they may struggle to provide high-quality care and which may also contribute to health professional burnout. The review demonstrates that health workforce planning concerns, such as these, impact on health professional burnout and on the ability of health professionals to deliver quality care. The review also demonstrates that most of the published papers published between 2000 and 2013 addressing health professional burnout and quality of care were nursing focused

Enabling Lightweight Video Annotation and Presentation for Cultural Heritage

Collaboration-intensive research is increasingly becoming the norm in the humanities and social science arenas. eResearch tools such as online repositories offer researchers the opportunity to access and interact with data online. For the last 20 years video has formed an important part of humanities research, although dealing with multimedia in an online setting has proven difficult with existing tools. File size limitations, lack of interoperability with existing security systems, and the inability to include rich supportive detail regarding files have hampered the use of video. This paper describes a collaborative and data management solution for video and other files using a combination of existing tools (SRB and Plone integrated with Shibboleth) and a custom application for video upload and annotation (Mattotea). Rather than creating new proprietary systems, this development has examined the reuse of existing technologies with the addition of custom extensions to provide fullfeatured access to research data

A 10-year (2000-2010) systematic review of interventions to improve quality of care in hospitals.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Against a backdrop of rising healthcare costs, variability in care provision and an increased emphasis on patient satisfaction, the need for effective interventions to improve quality of care has come to the fore. This is the first ten year (2000--2010) systematic review of interventions which sought to improve quality of care in a hospital setting. This review moves beyond a broad assessment of outcome significance levels and makes recommendations for future effective and accessible interventions. METHODS: Two researchers independently screened a total of 13,195 English language articles from the databases PsychInfo, Medline, PubMed, EmBase and CinNahl. There were 120 potentially relevant full text articles examined and 20 of those articles met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Included studies were heterogeneous in terms of approach and scientific rigour and varied in scope from small scale improvements for specific patient groups to large scale quality improvement programmes across multiple settings. Interventions were broadly categorised as either technical (n = 11) or interpersonal (n = 9). Technical interventions were in the main implemented by physicians and concentrated on improving care for patients with heart disease or pneumonia. Interpersonal interventions focused on patient satisfaction and tended to be implemented by nursing staff. Technical interventions had a tendency to achieve more substantial improvements in quality of care. CONCLUSIONS: The rigorous application of inclusion criteria to studies established that despite the very large volume of literature on quality of care improvements, there is a paucity of hospital interventions with a theoretically based design or implementation. The screening process established that intervention studies to date have largely failed to identify their position along the quality of care spectrum. It is suggested that this lack of theoretical grounding may partly explain the minimal transfer of health research to date into policy. It is recommended that future interventions are established within a theoretical framework and that selected quality of care outcomes are assessed using this framework. Future interventions to improve quality of care will be most effective when they use a collaborative approach, involve multidisciplinary teams, utilise available resources, involve physicians and recognise the unique requirements of each patient group

Trauma-informed Performance Art Education

Trauma is the emotional response to a disturbing event or series of events, and can cause symptoms such as unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, headaches, and nausea, according to the American Psychological Association (2022). Learning activities in the performing arts - such as adjusting the body through touch, or the emotional content of scenes - can retraumatize students unintentionally. In contrast, creating the conditions for emotional states that enhance learning is a science, and an art, that can support conditions for optimal performance including Flow states Performing arts educators can proactively support students and performances by becoming trauma-informed and actively using intimacy training and consent processes. This transdisciplinary project - a 2-hour workshop for performing arts educators - brings together a Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE) and DEIJB educator, a professional dancer and trauma victim advocate, and learning designers focused on the effects of emotion on learning, trauma-informed education, and conditions for flow learning experiences.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cfa_collaborate/1001/thumbnail.jp