Looking Beyond the Bump: a holistic approach to women’s health in a COVID-19 world

The overall aim of this thesis was to explore and investigate lifestyle interventions to reduce diabetes risk by; (1) incorporating postmeal walking in the management of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), and (2) increasing physical activity levels in postpartum women. Pregnancy and postpartum periods present many barriers to partaking in healthy behaviours. The complexities of motherhood and the increase of subsequent barriers (incl. financial burden, time poor) have been widely reported, however strategies to improve uptake of healthy behaviours in pregnancy/postpartum periods, and during the COVID-19 pandemic are warranted

QUALITATIVE PHTOCHEMISTRY PROFILE OF WATERMELON (CITRULLUS VULGARIS SCHRAD) RIND EXTRACTS WITH DIFFERENT SOLVENTS

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Citrullus vulgaris Schrad. is known to contain bioactive compounds such as cucurbitacin, triterpenes, sterols and alkaloids, vitamins,minerals and has also proved to contain antioxidant and therapeutic properties.Objectives: The study focus to elucidate on the percentage of extractive yield and to screen the watermelon rind extracts using various solvents andhot aqueous extract for its phytochemical profile.Methods: The solvents used were methanol, ethanol, chloroform, petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, acetone and hot aqueous extracts. The rind sampleswere shade dried and powdered. It was then subjected to soxhlet extraction using the different solvents and pressurized hot water extraction. Theobtained extracts were concentrated and screened for preliminary phytoconstituents using standard laboratory protocols.Results: The rind extracts with different solvents and pressurized hot water extract showed different yield percentages and on analysis, hot aqueousextract was found to have the highest extractive yield. The preliminary screening of the rind extracts with different solvents and pressurized hot waterextract were tabulated and showed the presence and/or absence of various bioactive constituents including the primary and secondary metabolites.Conclusion: Thus, the phytochemical constituents such as the primary metabolites and the secondary metabolites and various other bioactiveelements that are identifies are thought to be responsible for its antioxidant and therapeutic properties.Keywords: Citrullus vulgaris Schrad., Metabolites, Phytoconstituents, Soxhlet extraction, Yield percentage, Watermelon rind

Earthquake slip surfaces identified by biomarker thermal maturity within the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake fault zone.

Extreme slip at shallow depths on subduction zone faults is a primary contributor to tsunami generation by earthquakes. Improving earthquake and tsunami risk assessment requires understanding the material and structural conditions that favor earthquake propagation to the trench. We use new biomarker thermal maturity indicators to identify seismic faults in drill core recovered from the Japan Trench subduction zone, which hosted 50 m of shallow slip during the Mw9.1 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. Our results show that multiple faults have hosted earthquakes with displacement ≥ 10 m, and each could have hosted many great earthquakes, illustrating an extensive history of great earthquake seismicity that caused large shallow slip. We find that lithologic contrasts in frictional properties do not necessarily determine the likelihood of large shallow slip or seismic hazard

‘Now More Than Ever, Survivors Need Us’: Essential labouring and increased precarity during COVID-19

During the earliest waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, much media and public discourse focused on the effects of increasing precarity on already vulnerable populations. As in-person work added a layer of viral risk and unemployment drastically exacerbated economic precariousness, the category of ‘essential worker’ gained new prominence in these conversations. In this paper, we focus on the complicated relationship between two groups of workers depicted as marginalised and exploited to different degrees during COVID-19: trafficked persons and anti-trafficking service providers. Though media coverage did not conflate these groups, it applied a capacious understanding of precarious labour and structural inequalities that encapsulated different types of essential work. We draw on media produced by frontline anti-trafficking and sex workers’ rights organisations between March and May 2020. Even with renewed attention to macro-level harms, many publications still emphasised individualism over collectivity. This emphasis on singular organisational representatives—frontline workers—as heroic rescuers mirrored larger, normative anti-trafficking discourses. At the point at which the ‘new normal’ was nowhere in sight, COVID-19 served as a flashpoint to reconsider current intervention strategies and instead emphasise a critique of precarious labour along multiple vectors

Editorial workflow of a community-led, all-volunteer scientific journal: lessons from the launch of Seismica

Seismica is a community-led, volunteer-run, diamond open-access journal for seismology and earthquake science, and Seismica's mission and core values align with the principles of Open Science. This article describes the editorial workflow that Seismica uses to go from a submitted manuscript to a published article. In keeping with Open Science principles, the main goals of sharing this workflow description are to increase transparency around academic publishing, and to enable others to use elements of Seismica's workflow for journals of a similar size and ethos. We highlight aspects of Seismica's workflow that differ from practices at journals with paid staff members, and also discuss some of the challenges encountered, solutions developed, and lessons learned while this workflow was developed and deployed over Seismica's first year of operations

EmpRess: an eHealth implementation readiness checklist for dementia developed through an interview study of stakeholder needs

ObjectiveThis study aimed to create a tool to assess eHealth interventions for dementia by adapting an existing implementation readiness (ImpRess) checklist that assessed manualised interventions.MethodsIn Part 1, online semi-structured interviews with individual stakeholders (N = 9) with expertise in eHealth and dementia were conducted (response rate 83%). The Nonadoption, Abandonment, and challenges to the Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability of Health and care technologies (NASSS) framework was applied, both to guide the construction of the interview guide, as well as to use its subdomains as codes in the deductive qualitative thematic analysis. Respondents were industry professionals (n = 3), researchers (n = 3), policy officers (n = 2), and a clinician (n = 1). In Part 2, the items of the original ImpRess checklist were supplemented by items that covered determinants discussed in the interviews, that were not included in the original checklist.ResultsThe main findings from the interviews included: Participants’ preference for a non-dementia-specific, more general approach to the checklist; the importance of searching for shared values with implementers; and the need for more systematic monitoring of implementation.ConclusionsThe EmpRess checklist applies an inclusive design approach. The checklist will help evaluate the implementation determinants of eHealth interventions for dementia and provide up-to-date information on what is, and is not, working in eHealth for dementia care