Museum Representations of Contested Spaces: The Kuril Islands

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, a boom of museums focused on the Ainu cultural subject has emerged in both Russia and Japan. By conceptualizing museums as nonneutral and culturally embedded productions which attempt to convey knowledge of foreign spaces to home spaces, this thesis will analyze the ways in which various museum institutions in Russia and Japan, as well as those produced by Ainu activist groups, choose to tell certain stories about the disputed Kuril Island territories and the Ainu people, and to map those stories within the broader colonial framework of the Kuril Islands dispute and indigenous rights in Russia and Japan. The institutions discussed in this text are the Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park, Japanese National Museum of Territory and Sovereignty, Russian Ethnographic Museum, Omsk Oblast Museum of Fine Art, Nibutani Ainu Cultural Museum, and Ureshipa Shirarika

Epigenetic centromere specification directs aurora B accumulation but is insufficient to efficiently correct mitotic errors

Aurora B activity is inhibited when centromeric repeat sequences are absent, although kinetochores can still assemble

Exploring the effect of implementation and context on a stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial of a vital sign triage device in routine maternity care in low-resource settings

© 2019 The Author(s). Background: Interventions aimed at reducing maternal mortality are increasingly complex. Understanding how complex interventions are delivered, to whom, and how they work is key in ensuring their rapid scale-up. We delivered a vital signs triage intervention into routine maternity care in eight low- and middle-income countries with the aim of reducing a composite outcome of morbidity and mortality. This was a pragmatic, hybrid effectiveness-implementation stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial. In this study, we present the results of the mixed-methods process evaluation. The aim was to describe implementation and local context and integrate results to determine whether differences in the effect of the intervention across sites could be explained. Methods: The duration and content of implementation, uptake of the intervention and its impact on clinical management were recorded. These were integrated with interviews (n = 36) and focus groups (n = 19) at 3 months and 6-9 months after implementation. In order to determine the effect of implementation on effectiveness, measures were ranked and averaged across implementation domains to create a composite implementation strength score and then correlated with the primary outcome. Results: Overall, 61.1% (n = 2747) of health care providers were trained in the intervention (range 16.5% to 89.2%) over a mean of 10.8 days. Uptake and acceptability of the intervention was good. All clusters demonstrated improved availability of vital signs equipment. There was an increase in the proportion of women having their blood pressure measured in pregnancy following the intervention (79.2% vs. 97.6%; OR 1.30 (1.29-1.31)) and no significant change in referral rates (3.7% vs. 4.4% OR 0.89; (0.39-2.05)). Availability of resources and acceptable, effective referral systems influenced health care provider interaction with the intervention. There was no correlation between process measures within or between domains, or between the composite score and the primary outcome. Conclusions: This process evaluation has successfully described the quantity and quality of implementation. Variation in implementation and context did not explain differences in the effectiveness of the intervention on maternal mortality and morbidity. We suggest future trials should prioritise in-depth evaluation of local context and clinical pathways. Trial registration: Trial registration: ISRCTN41244132. Registered on 2 Feb 2016

‘Midwives Overboard!’ Inside their hearts are breaking, their makeup may be flaking but their smile still stays on

PROBLEM: Midwifery practice is emotional and, at times, traumatic work. Cumulative exposure to this, in an unsupportive environment can result in the development of psychological and behavioural symptoms of distress. BACKGROUND: As there is a clear link between the wellbeing of staff and the quality of patient care, the issue of midwife wellbeing is gathering significant attention. Despite this, it can be rare to find a midwife who will publically admit to how much they are struggling. They soldier on, often in silence. AIM: This paper aims to present a narrative review of the literature in relation to work-related psychological distress in midwifery populations. Opportunities for change are presented with the intention of generating further conversations within the academic and healthcare communities. METHODS: A narrative literature review was conducted. FINDINGS: Internationally, midwives experience various types of work-related psychological distress. These include both organisational and occupational sources of stress. DISCUSSION: Dysfunctional working cultures and inadequate support are not conducive to safe patient care or the sustained progressive development of the midwifery profession. New research, revised international strategies and new evidence based interventions of support are required to support midwives in psychological distress. This will in turn maximise patient, public and staff safety. CONCLUSIONS: Ethically, midwives are entitled to a psychologically safe professional journey. This paper offers the principal conclusion that when maternity services invest in the mental health and wellbeing of midwives, they may reap the rewards of improved patient care, improved staff experience and safer maternity services

SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in pregnant women in Kilifi, Kenya from March 2020 to March 2022

BackgroundSeroprevalence studies are an alternative approach to estimating the extent of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the evolution of the pandemic in different geographical settings. We aimed to determine the SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence from March 2020 to March 2022 in a rural and urban setting in Kilifi County, Kenya.MethodsWe obtained representative random samples of stored serum from a pregnancy cohort study for the period March 2020 to March 2022 and tested for antibodies against the spike protein using a qualitative SARS-CoV-2 ELISA kit (Wantai, total antibodies). All positive samples were retested for anti-SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid antibodies (Euroimmun, ELISA kits, NCP, qualitative, IgG) and anti-spike protein antibodies (Euroimmun, ELISA kits, QuantiVac; quantitative, IgG).ResultsA total of 2,495 (of 4,703 available) samples were tested. There was an overall trend of increasing seropositivity from a low of 0% [95% CI 0–0.06] in March 2020 to a high of 89.4% [95% CI 83.36–93.82] in Feb 2022. Of the Wantai test-positive samples, 59.7% [95% CI 57.06–62.34] tested positive by the Euroimmun anti-SARS-CoV-2 NCP test and 37.4% [95% CI 34.83–40.04] tested positive by the Euroimmun anti-SARS-CoV-2 QuantiVac test. No differences were observed between the urban and rural hospital but villages adjacent to the major highway traversing the study area had a higher seroprevalence.ConclusionAnti-SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence rose rapidly, with most of the population exposed to SARS-CoV-2 within 23 months of the first cases. The high cumulative seroprevalence suggests greater population exposure to SARS-CoV-2 than that reported from surveillance data

Importance of Life Stage Capture in Dragonfly Specimen Digitization

Life stage is apparently rarely captured during the digitization of natural history collections, but it can highlight sampling biases, life history changes, and gaps in taxonomy and systematics. Through the digitization of non-adult specimens of clubtail dragonflies, for example, it is possible to identify the taxa that lack diagnostic keys for all life stages. While likely only a small proportion of an entomological collection includes all life stages for a single taxon, the larvae and exuviae (the skin shed upon emergence from the aquatic larval stage to the adult terrestrial stage) can provide a more comprehensive representation of morphological characters for species’ identification and evolutionary questions. Furthermore, recording the life stage of dragonflies in the digitization process enables analysis of the distribution of a dragonfly taxon throughout its life history, which is both aquatic and terrestrial. By digitizing the Gomphidae specimens in collection at the Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State University, proportions of life stages were compared to other digitized collections. This analysis reveals gaps in both keys and collections, as well as the need for increased diagnostic and natural history data for this family

Burrowed in Natural History: Analysis of Life Stage Collection in Gomphidae (Odonata)

Life stage is apparently rarely captured during the digitization of natural history collections, but it can highlight sampling biases, life history changes, and gaps in taxonomy and systematics. Through the digitization of non-adult specimens of clubtail dragonflies, for example, it is possible to identify the taxa that lack diagnostic keys for all life stages. While likely only a small proportion of an entomological collection includes all life stages for a single taxon, the larvae and exuviae (the skin shed upon emergence from the aquatic larval stage to the adult terrestrial stage) can provide a more comprehensive representation of morphological characters for species’ identification and evolutionary questions. Furthermore, recording the life stage of dragonflies in the digitization process enables analysis of the distribution of a dragonfly taxon throughout its life history, which is both aquatic and terrestrial. By digitizing the Gomphidae specimens in collection at the Frost Entomological Museum at Penn State University, proportions of life stages were compared to other digitized collections. This analysis reveals gaps in both keys and collections, as well as the need for increased diagnostic and natural history data for this family

DSApresentation2016 (1).pdf

Partitioned ecological niche models were created to examine if the distribution of Coenagrionidae is changing over time