19683 research outputs found
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'I don't want to be a guinea pig' - Swedish women's experiences of breast abscess treatment
No full textBackground: It is well known that breastfeeding plays an important role in the health of women and children. However, women are not always given optimal support and most do not reach their breastfeeding goals. About one in five, breastfeeding women report mastitis and a small proportion of these develop a breast abscess. Our aim was to describe the experiences of a group of Swedish breastfeeding women who developed a breast abscess. Methods: A qualitative cross-sectional study with 18 study participants was undertaken in Sweden in 2017–2018. Potential participants were identified through electronic medical records at a university hospital and invited to participate in audio-recorded telephone interviews. Women were between 2 and 24 months postpartum at the time of the interview, on average 8 months. We conducted a thematic analysis in six steps according to Braun and Clark. Results: Our analysis identified two themes: 1) Seeking care and receiving treatment was long and unpleasant, and 2) Importance of adequate professional care. Women who experienced a breast abscess were uncertain about where to ask for professional help. They often had a long wait for the right time to undergo the unpleasant and painful procedure of draining their breast abscess. The women felt it was important to receive professional care with respectful communication, continuity of care, and to receive adequate information, but they did not always receive this level of care. Conclusions: Women with puerperal breast abscesses often fall between medical specialty areas. No longer under the care of obstetricians and maternity services, their problem is too complicated for general practitioners or emergency departments, but not regarded as serious by breast surgeons. Healthcare professionals urgently need adequate training in order to deal with breastfeeding problems and be able to offer women-centred care.</p
What is Needed to Promote Person-Centred Support and Better Quality of Life Outcomes for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Across the World: What Role can Research Play in This?
No full textNo description supplied</p
Canola Industry in the Grampians: Current positioning and development
No full textThis study is focused on depicting the value importance of the industry and on defining challenges, limitations and actions required to support its development in the Grampians region. We engage in a process of consultation with regional stakeholders of the industry, including farmers, seed companies, processors, environmental officers, and potential investors.</p
How to design cost-effective soil profiles in plastic greenhouses?
No full textPlastic-greenhouse soils, spanning approximately 4.8 million hectares worldwide, are predominantly cultivated by smallholder farmers for horticultural production. These soils contribute greatly to the production of vegetables, herbs, and fruits, and thus to a healthy diet and high farmers' income. Nevertheless, the current challenge is a comprehensive understanding and design of cost-effective profiles for plastic-greenhouse soils of low to medium technology. Here, we devised a novel conceptual framework of a plastic-greenhouse soil profile, considering the environmental limitations imposed by the plastic covering. The profile comprises four distinct layers: a mulch layer to reduce evaporation, a root-carbon layer to facilitate nutrient, CO2 and heat generation, a soil-carbon mix layer for effective soil buffering, and a water conservation layer to store water and nutrients. Two typical examples of this concept were summarized, the sand mulching profile in Almería, Spain and the sunken profile in Shouguang, China. This soil profile design is affordable and cost-effective for smallholder farmers to produce horticulture product sustainably, therefore, it is worth being applied worldwide. Future studies should adopt the current concept but modify it based on the local soil profile and available resources. More importantly, controlling organic input and thus microbial functions are required to facilitate either plant or soil health.</p
Femicide in Australia: A Discourse Analysis of Media Representations of Fatal Intimate Partner Violence Cases
No full textA thesis submitted as total fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts to the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia.</p
Staging the Visitor Experience at Culloden Battlefield using the Key Design Principles of the Experience Economy Model and Technology
No full textNo description supplied</p
A blood-based mRNA signature distinguishes people with Long COVID from recovered individuals
No full textIntroduction: Long COVID is a debilitating condition that lasts for more than three months post-infection by SARS–CoV–2. On average, one in ten individuals infected with SARS CoV- 2 develops Long COVID worldwide. A knowledge gap exists in our understanding of the mechanisms, genetic risk factors, and biomarkers that could be associated with Long COVID. Methods: In this pilot study we used RNA-Seq to quantify the transcriptomes of peripheral blood mononuclear cells isolated from COVID-recovered individuals, seven with and seven without Long COVID symptoms (age- and sex-matched individuals), on average 6 months after infection. Results: Seventy genes were identified as significantly up- or down-regulated in Long COVID samples, and the vast majority were downregulated. The most significantly up- or downregulated genes fell into two main categories, either associated with cell survival or with inflammation. This included genes such as ICOS (FDR p = 0.024) and S1PR1 (FDR p = 0.019) that were both up-regulated, indicating that a pro-inflammatory state is sustained in Long COVID PBMCs compared with COVID recovered PBMCs. Functional enrichment analysis identified that immune-related functions were expectedly predominant among the up- or down-regulated genes. The most frequently downregulated genes in significantly altered functional categories were two leukocyte immunoglobulin like receptors LILRB1 (FDR p = 0.005) and LILRB2 (FDR p = 0.027). PCA analysis demonstrated that LILRB1 and LILRB2 expression discriminated all of the Long COVID samples from COVID recovered samples. Discussion: Downregulation of these inhibitory receptors similarly indicates a sustained pro-inflammatory state in Long COVID PBMCs. LILRB1 and LILRB2 should be validated as prospective biomarkers of Long COVID in larger cohorts, over time and against clinically overlapping conditions.</p
We need a global language rights movement: Confronting the global language crisis with insights from social movement studies
No full textSince the late 1980s, academics and activists have been drawing attention to a slow-moving global crisis: the ongoing destruction of global linguistic diversity. Despite this attention, language loss has proceeded unabated, and conservative estimates now suggest that around half the world’s languages will no longer be in use by the end of this century. In this provocation, I argue that only a global mass movement has the capacity to change the course of this crisis. I furthermore argue that a rights-based approach, centred on language rights, is our best bet for organising such a movement. Drawing on social movement studies, and my own experience as a language rights researcher and advocate, I explore three key areas where language rights provide the foundations for a mass movement in defence of linguistic diversity. First, I look at how language rights provide a discursive frame that resonates with other movements and clarifies the problem that needs to be addressed. Second, I look at how the concept of language rights can help recruit individuals and organisations into a mass movement and sustain their involvement in the cause. Third, I discuss how language rights provide a basis for effective collective action. In the conclusion I briefly discuss some of the challenges that will need to be overcome in forming a global mass movement for language rights.</p
Exploring the role of drones and UAVs in logistics and supply chain management: a novel text-based literature review
No full textAbstract:Drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have evolved into advanced instruments with diverseapplications within the Logistics and Supply Chain (LSC) sector. Our study uncovers a significantdisparity highlighted through an examination of recent review papers, indicating a deficiency in athorough examination of the applications of drones/UAVs across the entirety of supply chains. Dueto the abundance of publications in this field, a fresh analytical approach is required. Employinga novel text mining approach, qualitative assessments, and temporal trend analysis, we examinea dataset encompassing 5364 papers from Scopus spanning the years 1978 to 2023. By employ-ing the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) model, we identify ten distinct research topics within thedomain. Our findings suggest four promising future research directions: (1) fostering sustainable SCsthrough innovative drone-based solutions, (2) harnessing emerging technologies to achieve globalscalability within drone-based SCs, (3) exploring the applications of drone-based supply chains inpandemic control efforts, and (4) integrating drone-based logistics with multimodal transportationfor efficient traffic management. These directions provide valuable insights on the integration ofdrone-based transportation within existing and future supply chains, suggesting potential pathwaysfor advancing production and logistics systems research.</p