Decision-making for delivery location and quality of care among slum-dwellers: a qualitative study in Uttar Pradesh, India.

BackgroundIn 2013, the Government of India launched the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) in order to better address the health needs of urban populations, including the nearly 100 million living in slums. Maternal and neonatal health indicators remain poor in India. The objective of this study is to highlight the experiences of women, their husbands, and mothers-in-law related to maternal health services and delivery experiences.MethodsIn total, we conducted 80 in-depth interviews, including 40 with recent mothers, 20 with their husbands, and 20 with their mothers-in-law. Purposeful sampling was conducted in order to obtain differences across delivery experiences (facility vs. home), followed by their family members.ResultsMajor factors that influence decision-making about where to seek care included household dynamics and joint-decision-making with families, financial barriers, and perceived quality of care. Women perceived that private facilities were higher quality compared to public facilities, but also more expensive. Disrespectful care, bribes in the facility, and payment challenges were common in this population.ConclusionsA number of programmatic and policy recommendations are highlighted from this study. Future endeavors should include a greater focus on health education and public programs, including educating women on how to access programs, who is eligible, and how to obtain public funds. Families need to be educated on their rights and expectations in facilities. Future programs should consider the role of husbands and mothers-in-law in reproductive decision-making and support during deliveries. Triangulating information from multiple sources is important for future research efforts

Biological invasions: Insights into ecology and evolution

Introductions of exotic species commonly restructure native communities, but the mechanisms driving native species responses are poorly understood. Invasion biology has focused its research on the negative impacts of invaders, yet invaders can also have positive interactions. A holistic understanding of how biological invasions can have a full range of potential responses from negative to neutral to positive. Understanding the mechanics that underlie native species responses to invasions can help elucidate those factors structuring the native communities we see today. I used a combination of experimental and observational studies in the field and laboratory to determine the effects of spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe) invasion on native web spiders at the species and community levels while also testing key tenets of ecological and evolutionary theory. I found that the invader trait of plant architecture could be linked to the native spider trait of web construction to explain differences in native web spider species’ population responses to C. stoebe invasion. Architectural changes associated with C. stoebe invasion favor irregular webspider populations over orb-weaver populations by providing greater release from substrate limitation. Phenotypic plasticity of web size and its relationship to fitness may also influence differences in species responses. The irregular web spider Dictyna exhibited substantial web size plasticity with larger webs linking to higher prey captures and increased reproduction, while the orb-weaving spider Aculepeira, demonstrated no plasticity in web size and showed no associated fitness benefits. Interestingly, the fitness benefits associated with web size plasticity in early stages of invasion do not persist into later stages of invasion. Plasticity was significantly reduced in later stage populations, suggesting selection for reduced web size plasticity due to increased competition for food. Lastly, I also found that C. stoebe invasion was associated with changes in host-parasitoid interactions between Dictyna and its egg sac parasitoid. Dictyna from invaded grasslands were much more likely to kill parasitoids, compared to individuals from uninvaded, native grasslands. The combination of these results show the diverse effects of invasion on native species and communities and also highlight the value in using biological invasions as natural experiments to study ecology and evolution

USING GESTURES: INTENTIONAL TEACHING GESTURES AS AN L2 FACILITATIVE TOOL

Gestures used for classroom pedagogical purposes, or Intentional Teaching Gestures (ITG), are often used in second language (L2) programs, however, little is known of their impact on L2 learning. This study of students’ use of ITG was carried out to address the impact of ITG on L2 learning in a primary school context. The research approach combined a naturalistic inquiry in a case study school with mixed methods to investigate students’ use of ITG and patterns of use. This article examines the data relating to students’ use of ITG in two oral language tasks. Findings reveal that more students used ITG when orally telling a narrative that had been introduced to them with ITG and when viewing ITG. Students used ITG to demonstrate meaning and to support language retrieval and ITG use often preceded oral production. The findings highlight the cognitive role of ITG in language recall and as the primary mode of communicating meaning when there is a gesture-word mismatch. Learners’ use of ITG provide insights into their stage of language development and their language gaps and are useful as a diagnostic tool for teachers. The findings contribute practical understandings towards language teaching pedagogy and practice

AFLP Markers Identify \u3cem\u3eCornus florida\u3c/em\u3e Cultivars

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were generated from genomic DNA of seventeen flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) cultivars and lines and four duplicate samples. Fragments were analyzed on a Beckman Coulter CEQ™ 8000 Genetic Analysis System. AFLP fingerprints were converted to binary data (1=fragment present, 0=fragment absent) by the CEQ AFLP analysis program. A bin width of one nucleotide and a y-threshold of 15,000 relative dye signal were used to eliminate background noise and other weak peaks. All binary data were manually checked and verified and corrections were made when necessary. Cultivar specific markers were identified for all cultivars except three. Three drafts of a dichotomous cultivar identification key were constructed based on the corrected, verified binary data and the cultivar specific peaks. Two independent AFLP analyses were performed on four and three unknown dogwood samples to test the cultivar identification keys. In both cases, all unknowns except one were identifiable by the dichotomous keys, although in some cases by one key or the other, indicating the need or possibility of several keys. Intracultivar variation was observed in the duplicate samples. Binary data were analyzed by NTSYSpc. A similarity index was calculated and visualized with a tree of genetic distance. This database of AFLP markers can serve as a foundation to which other cultivars can be added and can be used in breeding applications, patent protection and in future projects, such as mapping the Cornus genome

Disruptive Spatiality and the Experience of Recordings of Bach's Solo Cello Suites

Architecture, so the saying goes, is "frozen music." Music, conversely, is "liquid" architecture. This aphorism, popular in the early nineteenth century, soon became a cliche. "Should one perhaps speak of ruins;' quips Schopenhauer in 1844, "as a 'frozen cadenza'?". However maligned, though, the cliche persists in Bach studies. It is still commonplace to speak of the "architecture" of Bach's music (Wolff 1969; Schulenberg 1992; Corten 1995), and even the composer himself has been labeled an "architect" (Joseph 1992). The very structures of this music, we are frequently told, are "architectonic:' While discourse on Bach has tended to adopt this architectural metaphor as an unquestioned, and at times tacit, assumption, there is little evidence to suggest that his music corresponds with any degree of precision to concrete examples of architectural theory or practice. Nor have commentators drawn consistent parallels between Bach's music and anyone architectural style, let alone a single historical period. The analogy between high Gothic architecture and Bach's counterpoint was common in the first half of the nineteenth century, and articles and books on Bach continue to be peppered with pictures of Gothic cathedrals. Other commentators, however, claim to detect stylistic parallels with the architecture of Baroque Rome: Raymond Court, for instance, writes that "we place the music of J. S. Bach opposite this grand Baroque architecture of papal Rome as in a mirror in order to discover analogous stylistic traits" (1989:15)