It's a breech!

Over the last decades, caesarean section has become the method of choice for breech presentation. This article is a reflection on my personal experience as a midwife and my thoughts in regard to questioning the justifications for performing routine caesarean for all breeches

Offering relaxation techniques, promoting women's choices.

This article is part of the "What about next time? A series of reflections" occasional series of articles. In this article, Mo Tabib reflects on her experience as a midwife introducing relaxation techniques to a woman with a prolonged latent phase of labour. The reflection explores the complexity of the woman's decision-making process, particularly when the element of continuity of carer is absent; and where limited choices have been offered. Considering this complexity, the midwife may face challenges and hesitations with regard to her position in the woman's decision-making process. This reflection uses aspects of MacDonald's reflective model (2014) to provide a framework to reflect, explore and learn from the experience

Identification of a new resistance gene to septoria tritici blotch in wheat

Door het screenen van lijnen en wilde verwanten van tarwe, is een nieuw resistentiegen tegen STB (Septoria tritici blotch) gevonden

Effective Psychodrama Supervision: A Grounded Theory Study on Senior Supervisors\u27 Perspectives

The overarching purpose of this two-phase study was to gain understanding about and insight into the practice of effective psychodrama supervision as a specialty field. The study explored senior supervisors’ perspectives on their roles as in-class group supervisors in psychodrama graduate school programs in Israel. Grounded theory (GT) methods of data collection and analysis were aimed at learning about participants’ professional approaches, and practice- based experiences. Study 1 involved face-to-face in-depth interviews conducted with open-ended core questions. The interviews explored how six expert participants approached the practice of PD supervision and the reasons behind their approaches. The findings shed light on the PD supervisor’s multifaceted role as clinical educator, role model, and group facilitator. The four emergent main domains, PD supervisors’ professional role identity; guiding principles and practices; PD supervision pedagogy; and PD supervisors’ challenges and dilemmas, constructed a conceptual framework of interrelated and overlapping aspects of the practice of PD supervision. Each domain was divided into five sub-categories for a total of 20 sub-categories that reflect the multifaceted nature and complexity of the supervisor’s role. A preliminary set of applicable best practice guidelines, both descriptive and prescriptive were formulated through secondary level analysis and synthesis of the collected data. Study 2 involved a single six-hour focus group study composed of questionnaires and collaborative group discussions as its main research instruments. The participants, 10 senior Israeli PD supervisors, were invited to provide outside expert opinion and validation of the proposed theory and guidelines. Study 2 served the primary purpose of ensuring greater trustworthiness, accuracy and triangulation of Study1 findings, and in addition provided key new findings on the specification of the PD supervisor’s embodied role and the experiential practice of PD supervision. A new emergent domain B highlights the foundations of PD supervision philosophy and worldview as rooted in classical psychodrama theory and language. Study 2 concludes with an expanded conceptual framework for conceptualizing PD supervision. In addition, a set of applicable best practice guidelines are constructed as secondary findings grounded in the data and presented as a proposed platform to help inform effective PD supervision

Efficacy and mapping of resistance to Mycosphaerella graminicola in wheat

Wheat is the most important food and feed crop, contributing about 19% of the required human dietary energy. The annual growth rate of the global cereal production -including wheat- is below one per cent. This is due to biotic and biotic constraints – including diseases – such that production falls short of meeting future food demands. Thus more wheat should be produced and the best way to achieve that is to produce and release cultivars with better disease resistance. Septoria tritici blotch (STB) is Europe’s major foliar wheat disease and is caused by the fungus Mycosphaerella graminicola that reduces yields to at least 50% under conducive conditions. STB management relies mostly on chemical control, but the continuously increasing incidence of fungicide resistant strains in fungal populations has resulted in a growing awareness of the importance of host resistance. However, the number of identified resistance genes to STB is very low compared to the number of known resistance genes for other wheat diseases. Moreover, these genes are not very effective and therefore of limited practical value. The aim of this research was to discover new genes for resistance and to develop tools facilitating their deployment in modern breeding programs. Three new resistance genes were detected on chromosomes 3DL, 5AL and 6DS that were designated as Stb16, Stb17 and Stb18, respectively. Stb17 was only expressed in adult plants, which is new for this disease, Stb18 is effective to a limited suite of isolates, but Stb16 has an extremely broad resistance that is of great interest to the commercial breeding industry. However, the impact of an individual gene depends strongly of the genetic make-up of a cultivar. Along with improved testing protocols these results are important for the successful commercial deployment of Stb genes in European wheat breeding programs.</p

Structural and functional studies on RbpA, a RNA polymerase binding protein in streptomyces coelicolor A3 (2)

RbpA is a RNA polymerase-binding protein that was identified in Streptomyces coelicolor. It is found in all Actinobacteria, including the pathogenic agent Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Streptomyces strains that have an rbpA mutation grow at a slower rate than the wild-type and are more sensitive to the RNAP-targeting antibiotic, rifampicin. RbpA binds to and activates σHrdB, the principal sigma factor that directs transcription of most housekeeping genes in S. coelicolor. Using bacterial two-hybrid analysis and in vitro pull down assays, RbpA was shown to interact with region 1.2-2.4 of σHrdB. This region forms part of a major interface with core RNA polymerase and is involved in the recognition of, and binding to, the -10 promoter element. Rv2050, the homologue of RbpA in M. tuberculosis, was also shown to interact with the principal sigma factor of this organism, σA. Structural studies on RbpA and Rv2050 revealed that it is composed of two regions, a structured N-terminal β-fold region and an flexible or unstable C-terminal region, which interacts with sigma. Alanine-scanning site-directed mutagenesis on the C-terminal region of RbpA identified important residues involved in σHrdB interaction as well as residues that might be involved in transcriptional activation

Comparison of three with six regions of interest analyses in patients with idiopathic constipation undertaking colon transit scintigraphy using 67Ga-citrate

OBJECTIVE AND INTRODUCTION: Preparation of data from 6 geometric regions of interest in the colon is time consuming, and can become impractical in the environment of busy Nuclear Medicine Departments. Therefore, we have investigated and demonstrated an alternative method for obtaining the same diagnostic information from an analysis of patients with idiopathic constipation who underwent colon transit scintigraphy using 67Ga-citrate. Data analysis methods using three regions of interest are compared to the results obtained using the more time consuming 6 regions of interest method to analyze the data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we report our results of the comparative reanalysis of data obtained by more traditional methods. We compare 3 regions of interest (ROI) which were taken from areas including the right colon, left colon and the rectosigmoid colon, with original work using our alternative 6 (ROI) diagnostic methodology. In addition, the proximal colonic emptying (PCE) was determined at 24 hr post ingestion among members of 3 identified subject groups. RESULTS: The distribution of activity as the ingested 67Ga-citrate passes through the colon constitutes an activity profile. The mean activity position in the colon can be determined from subsequent radiographic images and from this the mean clearance time can be calculated. In quantitative assessment, this represents the time at which half of activity was eliminated from colon (mean half clearance time - MCT) which did not appear different in the reanalysis. There is no significant difference in the current study in GMC 24h, GMC 48h and GMC 72h between two groups using the Man Whitney u test (p &gt; 0.05), while in the previous work the results were statistically significant for the two later time periods GMC (GMC 48h and GMC 72h) (p = 0.016 and p = 0.027 respectively). The PCE in the group 1 was = 2.50 (0.37); group 2, 1.57 (0.47) and group 3, 2.97. The PCE was not different between the two groups (p = 0.21). CONCLUSIONS: This investigation demonstrated that the radionuclide colon transit study using 67Ga-citrate is a safe, physiologic, and quantitative method for evaluating the transit of fecal material from cecum to rectum. Although, the visual assessment of diagnosis of the subjects in the two analyses is the same, it was not completely supported by quantitative measurements. Therefore, further studies need to be done

Comparative study of bolometric and non-bolometric switching elements for microwave phase shifters

The performance of semiconductor and high critical temperature superconductor switches is compared as they are used in delay-line-type microwave and millimeter-wave phase shifters. Such factors as their ratios of the off-to-on resistances, parasitic reactances, power consumption, speed, input-to-output isolation, ease of fabrication, and physical dimensions are compared. Owing to their almost infinite off-to-on resistance ratio and excellent input-to-output isolation, bolometric superconducting switches appear to be quite suitable for use in microwave phase shifters; their only drawbacks are their speed and size. The SUPERFET, a novel device whose operation is based on the electric field effect in high critical temperature ceramic superconductors is also discussed. Preliminary results indicate that the SUPERFET is fast and that it can be scaled; therefore, it can be fabricated with dimensions comparable to semiconductor field-effect transistors

Silicon-etalon fiber-optic temperature sensor

A temperature sensor is described which consists of a silicon etalon that is sputtered directly onto the end of an optical fiber. A two-layer protective cap structure is used to improve the sensor's long-term stability. The sensor's output is wavelength encoded to provide a high degree of immunity from cable and connector effects. This sensor is extremely compact and potentially inexpensive