Improving Menstrual Hygiene Management in Emergencies: IFRC's MHM Kit

ALNAP and ELRHA will be looking at 15 different examples of humanitarian innovation funded by ELRHA's Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) grants. Each case study will explore the dynamics of successful innovation processes, culminating in a unique and in-depth study on innovation in humanitarian action.This case study explores IFRC's innovation process in developing and testing a comprehensive relief item to meet more effectively and appropriately the menstrual hygiene needs of women and girls in emergencies

English Folk under the Red Flag: The Impact of Alan Bush’s ‘Workers’ Music’ on 20th Century Britain’s Left-Wing Music Scene

Workers’ music: songs to fight injustice, inequality and establish the rights of the working classes. This was a new, radical genre of music which communist composer, Alan Bush, envisioned in 1930s Britain. At the time, Bush was an established figure of the musical elite and was well known for his highly modernist, serial compositions. Yet he began theorising a new cultural movement, one which would diametrically oppose pre-existing musical norms found in capitalist-driven, bourgeois-influenced society. His radical vision prompted new compositions, concerts, events, publications and recordings in the run up to the second world war. Due to the inaccessible nature of the materials and its topical subject matter, much of this music has been disregarded in academic literature. Yet, by tracing the development of the movement, this thesis attempts to shed light on its pivotal role in the left-wing music scene. It considers how it continued to grow and diversify in the postwar era, even whilst Bush’s ambitions for workers music reached a hiatus. It argues that Bush’s theories, which underpinned the socialist concept of workers’ music, were an elemental component of the work which cultivated the Second British Folksong Revival. The approach taken in this study is twofold: on the one hand it interprets vast amounts of unpublished, undocumented archival materials and, on the other, it goes on to contextualise such material within contemporary historical and cultural movements

A study of twelve negative elements common to patient and non-patient groups

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Learning from adoptive families : what are their experiences of children’s development and the support they receive?

This portfolio consists of three parts. Part one is a systematic literature review and part two is an empirical paper, the combination of which provide greater insight into the experiences of adoptive families. Specifically, in the domains of post-adoption support and adoptive children’s development and support needs, addressing significant gaps in current literature and understanding. Part three forms the appendices.Part One: A systematic literature review exploring UK adoptive families’ experiences of post-adoption support. The review synthesised findings from ten available studies, using narrative synthesis to generate themes and produce a final conceptual model reflecting parental experiences of post-adoption support. This model shows the systemic impact of experiences, and the review provides several recommendations for improving post-adoption support in line this and existing theory.Part Two: A empirical study exploring parents’ experiences and perceptions of cognitive development in adoptive children with underdeveloped sensory systems. Parental experiences were explored in the context of a sensory-based intervention, aiming to rebuild these systems. This provided an understanding of the perceived influence of such an intervention on cognitive development contributing to a gap in research. Ten parents took part in semi-structured interviews following their child’s completion of a sensory-based intervention. Parents’ experiences of cognitive development supported existing theory and research, and further contributed new findings to the field, allowing beneficial suggestions for future research and clinical practice to be made.Part Three: Appendices relating to both parts, including all relevant additional documentation, a reflective statement and epistemological statement

Soft Drinks and Children: Where\u27s the Science?

Research is inconclusive regarding sweetened beverages and weight gain. However, sweetened beverage consumption has been associated with increased caloric intake and decreased diet quality. Beverage consumption should not be at the expense of diet quality. Beverage choices may require careful attention to added sugars and solid fats if a healthful diet as described by MyPyramid is to be achieved. Consumption of sweetened beverages should not exceed the discretionary caloric limit for any eating pattern

Oral Inflammation, Tooth Loss, Risk Factors, and Association with Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease

Periodontitis is a polymicrobial chronic inflammatory disease of tooth-supporting tissues with bacterial etiology affecting all age groups, becoming chronic in a subgroup of older individuals. Periodontal pathogens Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, and Treponema denticola are implicated in the development of a number of inflammatory pathologies at remote organ sites, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The initial inflammatory hypothesis proposed that AD hallmark proteins were the main contributors of central nervous system (CNS) inflammation. This hypothesis is expanding to include the role of infections, lifestyle, and genetic and environmental factors in the pathogenesis of AD. Periodontal disease (PD) typifies a condition that encompasses all of the above factors including pathogenic bacteria. These bacteria not only are the source of low-grade, chronic infection and inflammation that follow daily episodes of bacteremia arising from everyday tasks such as brushing, flossing teeth, chewing food, and during dental procedures, but they also disseminate into the brain from closely related anatomical pathways. The long-term effect of inflammatory mediators, pathogens, and/or their virulence factors, reaching the brain systemically or otherwise would, over time, prime the brain’s own microglia in individuals who have inherent susceptibility traits. Such susceptibilities contribute to inadequate neutralization of invading agents, upon reaching the brain. This has the capacity to create a vicious cycle of sustained local inflammatory milieu resulting in the loss of cytoarchitectural integrity and vital neurons with subsequent loss of function (deterioration in memory). The possible pathways between PD and AD development are considered here, as well as environmental factors that may modulate/exacerbate AD symptoms