Study into Postpartum Stress

Introduction: Postpartum depression is a major public health issue. Married or partnered women with ongoing low spousal support from partners are more likely to suffer from postpartum depression (Yaksi & Save 2021). Lack of emotional support from a spouse, verbal or physical abuse, and unintended pregnancies may further increase the risk of PPD (Kızılırmak, Calpbinici, Tabakan, & Kartal, 2021). This lack of support from the home adds to the stress and hormonal effects a woman may experience during and after her pregnancy. The purpose of this two phase study is to identify the impact of stress arousal on postpartum women and to identify areas to explore within postpartum depression and spousal support. The current project will be discussed and the importance of understanding the impact of cognitive load on patients and support partners, how arousal and stress can impact discharge education, and innovate ways to reimage the discharge process. Major themes from the literature review will also be presented

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Maternal Health Outcomes

Title: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Maternal Health Outcomes Abstract The COVID-19 Pandemic has disrupted access to maternal health services. Lockdowns, fear of contracting the disease, and limited access to healthcare services may have affected the overall well-being of expectant mothers and their newborns. Studies from previous infectious disease outbreaks have shown that adverse maternal outcomes have increased. Research is needed to determine the indirect impact the pandemic had on various areas of maternal health. The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic literature review to understand the impact of COVID-19 on maternal health. A systematic review was conducted using Google Scholar, PubMed, EBSCO, and MEDLINE databases to obtain relevant sources for this project. The sources included peer-reviewed journals and other scientific articles. The main findings of each article were extracted. The key search terms for this study included, “impact of COVID-19 pandemic on maternal outcomes”, “prevalence of adverse maternal outcomes”, “postpartum depression” and “postpartum complications”. Several themes were identified from the selected articles including postpartum depression, reduced access to healthcare services, maternal stress, and health complications. A total of 18 articles were included in this review. Postpartum Depression was discussed in 38.9% of the selected articles followed by adverse maternal outcomes (33%). The findings of this research will be used in projects to identify evidence-based strategies on how to increase well-being within maternal health. This study will improve understanding of how the pandemic may have exacerbated adverse maternal health outcomes and provide areas that practitioners and future researchers can focus on optimizing health outcomes

The Impact of Belief: Predictors of Depression Stigma in Nigerians

The primary purpose of this study was to understand which beliefs held by Nigerians in the United States contribute to depression stigma. The specific aims also included investigating depression literacy, determining if there are differences in depression literacy and stigma between first generation and second generation immigrants, and to determine which factors such as depression literacy, gender, beliefs on depression causation, and religiosity contribute to depression stigma. Participants completed an online survey which included a demographics measure, depression vignette, beliefs on causation scale, religiosity scale, and a personal and public depression stigma scale. It was hypothesized that gender, depression literacy, beliefs in causation, and religiosity would predict personal depression stigma. It was also hypothesized that depression literacy, beliefs in causation, and religiosity would predict public depression stigma. The majority of the sample had depression literacy, which exceeded expectations and lessened its effects on the depression stigma. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that gender (males), higher beliefs in the spiritual causation of depression, and religiosity predicted higher personal depression stigma scores. A multiple regression analysis revealed that beliefs in biological causation predicted higher public stigma scores. There were no observed differences between first generation and second generation immigrants. The findings of this study reflected the importance of religious and spiritual beliefs in Nigerians and suggest that mental illness research, prevention, and treatment should be examined through this lens

Behavior of Yersinia enterocolitica in Foods

Yersinia enterocolitica are ubiquitous, being isolated frequently from soil, water, animals, and a variety of foods. They comprise a biochemically heterogeneous group that can survive and grow at refrigeration temperatures. The ability to propagate at refrigeration temperatures is of considerable significance in food hygiene. Virulent strains of Yersinia invade mammalian cells such as HeLa cells in tissue culture. Two chromosomal genes, inv and ail, were identified for cell invasion of mammalian. The pathogen can cause diarrhoea, appendicitis and post-infection arthritis may occur in a small proportion of cases. The most common transmission route of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica is thought to be fecal-oral via contaminated food. Direct person-to-person contact is rare. Occasionally, pathogenic Y. enterocolitica has been detected in vegetables and environmental water; thus, vegetables and untreated water are also potential sources of human yersiniosis. However, the isolation rates of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica have been low, which may be due to the limited sensitivity of the detection methods. To identify other possible transmission vehicles, different food items should be studied more extensively. Many factors related to the epidemiology of Y. enterocolitica, such as sources, transmission routes, and predominating genotypes remain obscure because of the low sensitivity of detection methods

Reducing Transfer of Salmonella and Aerobic Mesophilic Bacteria on Melon Rinds Surfaces to Fresh Juice by Washing With Chlorine: Effect of Waiting Period Before Refrigeration of Prepared Juice

Cantaloupes, honeydew melons and watermelons inoculated with Salmonella cocktail at 4.5, 3.8, and 3.2 log10 CFU/cm2, respectively, were sanitized with 200 ppm chlorine before rinds removal, cutting, and juice preparation. Efficacy of 200 ppm chlorine in reducing transfer of Salmonella, aerobic mesophilic bacteria, yeast and mold, and Pseudomonas from the melon surfaces to freshly prepared fruit juice was investigated including the effect of waiting period before refrigeration of the juices. The melon juice filtrates were refrigerated immediately or stored at room temperature (~22°C) for 3 and 5 h before refrigeration. Average Salmonella bacteria recovered in fresh melon juice prepared from unwashed whole cantaloupes, watermelon and honeydew melons was 1.4, 0.5, and 0.4 log10 CFU/ml, respectively. Juices from unwashed inoculated melons had the highest bacterial populations and storage at an abusive temperature of 10°C led to proliferation. Holding these juices at room temperature for 5 h before refrigeration allowed Salmonella bacteria to increase by 0.5–0.8 log in cantaloupe juice and 0.3–0.5 log in watermelon and honeydew juices. No Salmonella bacteria was determined in fresh juices prepared from melons washed with chlorinated water. The results of this study showed that washing melons with 200 ppm chlorine before juice preparation and immediately refrigerating the juice will minimize the chances of Salmonella proliferation

Voltammetric behaviour of hydrogen peroxide at a silver electrode fabricated from a rewritable digital versatile disc (DVD) and its determination in water samples

In this study we investigated the possibility of applying Ag electrodes manufactured from recordable rewritable digital versatile discs (DVD-RW) for the voltammetric determination of hydrogen peroxide. The calibration plot was linear from 0.087 mM to 3.41 mM hydrogen peroxide with a sensitivity of 58.7 μA mM-1 over this range. A corresponding detection limit of 78.35 μM, based on a signal-to-noise-ratio of 3 was recorded. No interferences were observed by 500 mg L-1 chloride, 50 mg L-1 nitrate, 700 mg L-1 sulphate or 700 mg L-1 carbonate which are found in swimming pool water at these concentrations. Using the multiple standard addition method a percentage recovery of 90.67% with a coefficient of variation of 4.69% (n = 5) was found for a representative swimming pool water concentration of 1.2 mM hydrogen peroxide. Therefore, the performance data suggests that the method is reliable at the concentrations examined in this study and that a rapid, simple, economical and precise method of monitoring hydrogen peroxide in swimming pool and aquaculture applications is possible. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Bacterial Stressors in Minimally Processed Food

Stress responses are of particular importance to microorganisms, because their habitats are subjected to continual changes in temperature, osmotic pressure, and nutrients availability. Stressors (and stress factors), may be of chemical, physical, or biological nature. While stress to microorganisms is frequently caused by the surrounding environment, the growth of microbial cells on its own may also result in induction of some kinds of stress such as starvation and acidity. During production of fresh-cut produce, cumulative mild processing steps are employed, to control the growth of microorganisms. Pathogens on plant surfaces are already stressed and stress may be increased during the multiple mild processing steps, potentially leading to very hardy bacteria geared towards enhanced survival. Cross-protection can occur because the overlapping stress responses enable bacteria exposed to one stress to become resistant to another stress. A number of stresses have been shown to induce cross protection, including heat, cold, acid and osmotic stress. Among other factors, adaptation to heat stress appears to provide bacterial cells with more pronounced cross protection against several other stresses. Understanding how pathogens sense and respond to mild stresses is essential in order to design safe and effective minimal processing regimes

EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) Panel; Scientific Opinion on the risk posed by pathogens in food of non-animal origin. Part 1 (outbreak data analysis and risk ranking of food/pathogen combinations)

Food of non-animal origin (FoNAO) is consumed in a variety of forms, and a major component of almost all meals. These food types have the potential to be associated with large outbreaks as seen in 2011 associated with VTEC O104. A comparison of the incidence of human cases linked to consumption of FoNAO and of food of animal origin (FoAO) was carried out to provide an indication of the proportionality between these two groups of foods. It was concluded that outbreak data reported as part of EU Zoonoses Monitoring is currently the only option for EU-wide comparative estimates. Using this data from 2007 to 2011, FoNAO were associated with 10% of the outbreaks, 26% of the cases, 35% of the hospitalisations and 46% of the deaths. If the data from the 2011VTEC O104 outbreak is excluded, FoNAO was associated with 10% of the outbreaks, 18% of cases, but only 8% of the hospitalisations and 5% of the deaths. From 2008 to 2011 there was an increase in the numbers of reported outbreaks, cases, hospitalisations and deaths associated with food of non-animal origin. In order to identify and rank specific food/pathogen combinations most often linked to human cases originating from FoNAO in the EU, a model was developed using seven criteria: strength of associations between food and pathogen based on the foodborne outbreak data from EU Zoonoses Monitoring (2007-11), incidence of illness, burden of disease, dose-response relationship, consumption, prevalence of contamination and pathogen growth potential during shelf life. Shortcomings in the approach using outbreak data were discussed. The top ranking food/pathogen combination was Salmonellaspp. and leafy greens eaten raw followed by (in equal rank) Salmonellaspp. and bulb and stem vegetables, Salmonellaspp. and tomatoes, Salmonellaspp. and melons, and pathogenic Escherichia coli and fresh pods, legumes or grain