Intimate Partner Violence and Pregnancy Intentions: A Qualitative Study

Aim and Objective In this qualitative study we explored women���s pregnancy intentions and experiences of intimate partner violence before, during and after pregnancy. Background Unintended pregnancies in the context of intimate partner violence can have serious health, social and economic consequences for women and their children. Design Feminist and phenomenological philosophies underpinned the study to gain a richer understanding of women���s experiences. Methods Eleven women who had been pregnant in the previous two years were recruited from community-based women���s refuges in one region of the United Kingdom. Of the eleven women, eight had unplanned pregnancies, two reported being coerced into early motherhood, and only one woman had purposively planned her pregnancy. Multiple in-depth interviews focused on participants��� accounts of living with intimate partner violence. Experiential data analysis was used to identify, analyse and highlight themes. Results Three major themes were identified: men���s control of contraception, partner���s indiscriminate response to the pregnancy, and women���s mixed feelings about the pregnancy. Participants reported limited influence over their sexual relationship and Accepted Article This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. birth control. Feelings of vulnerability about themselves and fear for their unborn babies��� safety were intensified by their partners��� continued violence during pregnancy. Conclusion Women experiencing intimate partner violence were more likely to have an unintended pregnancy. This could be attributed to male dominance and fear, which impacts on a woman���s ability to manage her birth control options. The women���s initial excitement about their pregnancy diminished in the face of uncertainty and ongoing violence within their relationship. Relevance to clinical practice Women experiencing violence lack choice in relation to birth control options leading to unintended pregnancies. Interpreting the findings from the victim-perpetrator interactive spin theory of intimate partner violence provides a possible framework for midwives and nurses to better understand and respond to women���s experiences of violence during pregnancy.

SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL FACTORS INFLUENCING COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR IN GIANT DANIO

A fundamental problem in biology is understanding how and why things group together. Collective behavior is observed on all organismic levels - from cells and slime molds, to swarms of insects, flocks of birds, and schooling fish, and in mammals, including humans. The <i>long-term goal</i> of this research is to understand the functions and mechanisms underlying collective behavior in groups. This dissertation focuses on shoaling (aggregating) fish. Shoaling behaviors in fish confer foraging and anti-predator benefits through social cues from other individuals in the group. However, it is not fully understood what information individuals receive from one another or how this information is propagated throughout a group. It is also not fully understood how the environmental conditions and perturbations affect group behaviors. The <i>specific research objective</i> of this dissertation is to gain a better understanding of how certain social and environmental factors affect group behaviors in fish. I focus on two ecologically relevant decision-making behaviors: (i) rheotaxis, or orientation with respect to a flow, and (ii) startle response, a rapid response to a perceived threat. By integrating behavioral and engineering paradigms, I detail specifics of behavior in giant danio <i>Devario aequipinnatus</i> (McClelland 1893), and numerically analyze mathematical models that may be extended to group behavior for fish in general, and potentially other groups of animals as well. These models that predict behavior data, as well as generate additional, testable hypotheses. One of the primary goals of neuroethology is to study an organism's behavior in the context of evolution and ecology. Here, I focus on studying ecologically relevant behaviors in giant danio in order to better understand collective behavior in fish. The experiments in this dissertation provide contributions to fish ecology, collective behavior, and biologically-inspired robotics.

Social and environmental determinants, household food insecurity

Food security is defined as a situation that exists when ���all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. It is a multilevel concept, which includes four main dimensions: availability related to food supply; accessibility in order to ensure the physical and economic access to food; adequacy to meet nutritional needs in quantity and quality while respecting individual food preferences and cultural issues (utilization); and, lastly, stability of the guarantee of food security over time. According to the food security definition, it is abroad concept where all these dimensions are largely affected by a considerable number of factors related to: public policies of different sectors, food production/industry/distribution food systems, marketing and advertising of food, social support networks and individual determinants related to food choice behaviour.

The Impact of Education and Socioeconomic and Occupational Conditions on Self-Perceived and Mental Health Inequalities Among Immigrants and Native Workers in Spain

There is limited evidence on the influence of social determinants on the self-perceived and mental health of immigrants settled at least 8 years in Spain. The aim of this study was to examine differences between workers related to migrant-status, self-perceived and mental health, and to assess their relationship to occupational conditions, educational level and occupational social class, stratified by sex. Using data from the Spanish National Health Survey of 2011/12, we computed prevalence, odds ratios and explicative fractions. Mental (OR 2.02; CI 1.39���2.93) and self-perceived health (OR 2.64; CI 1.77���3.93) were poorer for immigrant women compared to natives. Occupational social class variable contributes 25 % to self-perceived health OR in immigrant women. Settled immigrant women workers are a vulnerable group in Spain.

Performance and economic indicators of a large scale fish farming in Mato Grosso, Brazil

Performance and economic indicators of a large scale fish farm that produces round fish, located in Mato Grosso State, Brazil, were evaluated. The 130.8 ha-water surface area was distributed in 30 ponds. Average total production costs and the following economic indicators were calculated: gross income (GI), gross margin (GM), gross margin index (GMI), profitability index (PI) and profit (P) for the farm as a whole and for ten ponds individually. Production performance indicators were also obtained, such as: production cycle (PC), apparent feed conversion (FC), average biomass storage (ABS), survival index (SI) and final average weight (FAW). The average costs to produce an average 2.971 kg.ha-1 per year were: R$ 2.43, R$ 0.72 and R$ 3.15 as average variable, fixed and total costs, respectively. Gross margin and profit per year per hectare of water surface were R$ 2,316.91 and R$ 180.98, respectively. The individual evaluation of the ponds showed that the best pond performance was obtained for PI 38%, FC 1.7, ABS 0.980 kg.m-2, TS 56%, FAW 1.873 kg with PC of 12.3 months. The worst PI was obtained for the pond that displayed losses of 138%, FC 2.6, ABS 0.110 kg.m-2, SI 16% and FAW 1.811 kg. However, large scale production of round-fish in farms is economically feasible. The studied farm displays favorable conditions to improve performance and economic indicators, but it is necessary to reproduce the breeding techniques and performance indicators achieved in few ponds to the entire farm.

Application of the UK Foresight Obesity Model in Ireland: The Health and Economic Consequences of Projected Obesity Trends in Ireland

Given the scale of the current obesity epidemic and associated health consequences there has been increasing concern about the economic burden placed on society in terms of direct healthcare costs and indirect societal costs. In the Republic of Ireland these costs were estimated at &euro;1.13 billion for 2009. The total direct healthcare costs for six major obesity related conditions (coronary heart disease & stroke, cancer, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and knee osteoarthritis) in the same year were estimated at &euro;2.55 billion. The aim of this research is to project disease burden and direct healthcare costs for these conditions in Ireland to 2030 using the established model developed by the Health Forum (UK) for the Foresight: Tackling Obesities project.

Leadership in the community sector: promoting collaboration and social change in Belfast

Community development is centrally concerned with people in communities working together to achieve a common goal, that is, to collaborate, whether within local geographical communities, in communities of shared interests or among groups sharing a common identity. Its overarching goal is one of progressive transformational social change. As Belfast transitions from a conflict to a post-conflict society, there is a need for greater, more effective work at local community level in order to address a range of ongoing social and economic issues facing communities, including high levels of disadvantage and division. Given the significance of leadership in building effective collaboration and the centrality of collaboration for community development, it is important to understand how leadership is currently enacted and what kinds of leadership are required to support communities to collaborate effectively to bring about social change. This thesis thus centers on the kind of leadership practised and required to support collaboration for social change within the community sector in Belfast, a city that contains an estimated 28% of the total number of community and voluntary sector (CVS) organisations in Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action, 2012). Through a series of qualitative, in-depth interviews with people playing leadership roles in local communities, the study critically explores and analyses their experiences and perceptions in relation to leadership and collaboration. Community development in Belfast today is practised within a wider context of neoliberal policies, characterised by austerity and public spending cuts. Whilst not the only influencing factor, this context has had a particular and profound impact on the nature and role of community development practised, and on the kind of leadership enacted within it. The space for reflection and transformative action appears to be shrinking as the contraction of resources to support community development in local communities continues unabated. Those playing leadership roles increasingly find themselves compelled to spend time seeking resources and managing complex funding arrangements rather than focusing on the social change dimensions of their work. Collaboration as promoted by the state seems to have become an instrumental tactic used to implement its austerity measures and curtail the potential of the community sector. Despite this, local leaders are driving initiatives that attempt to push back, helping the sector refocus on its transformational goals of social change. To do this requires support. Those playing leadership roles require resources, including time, to encourage and enable communities to reconnect with the purpose and underpinning values of community development. Leaders also need support to develop and promote new, progressive narratives and visions and pursue these through building collaboration and solidarity.

Turning conflict into coexistence: cross-cutting ties and institutions in the agro-pastoral borderlands of Lake Naivasha basin, Kenya

The Maasai/Kikuyu agro-pastoral borderlands of Maiella and Enoosupukia, located in the hinterlands of Lake Naivasha���s agro-industrial hub, are particularly notorious in the history of ethnicised violence in the Kenya���s Rift Valley. In October 1993, an organised assault perpetrated by hundreds of Maasai vigilantes, with the assistance of game wardens and administration police, killed more than 20 farmers of Kikuyu descent. Consequently, thousands of migrant farmers were violently evicted from Enoosupukia at the instigation of leading local politicians. Nowadays, however, intercommunity relations are surprisingly peaceful and the cooperative use of natural resources is the rule rather than the exception. There seems to be a form of reorganization. Violence seems to be contained and the local economy has since recovered. This does not mean that there is no conflict, but people seem to have the facility to solve them peacefully. How did formerly violent conflicts develop into peaceful relations? How did competition turn into cooperation, facilitating changing land use? This dissertation explores the value of cross-cutting ties and local institutions in peaceful relationships and the non-violent resolution of conflicts across previously violently contested community boundaries. It mainly relies on ethnographic data collected between 2014 and 2015. The discussion therefore builds on several theoretical approaches in anthropology and the social sciences ��� that is, violent conflicts, cross-cutting ties and conflicting loyalties, joking relationships, peace and nonviolence, and institutions, in order to understand shared spaces that are experiencing fairly rapid social and economic changes, and characterised by conflict and coexistence. In the researched communities, cross-cutting ties and the split allegiances associated with them result from intermarriages, land transactions, trade, and friendship. By institutions, I refer to local peace committees, an attempt to standardise an aspect of customary law, and Nyumba Kumi, a strategy of anchoring community policing at the household level. In 2010, the state ���implanted��� these grassroots-level institutions and conferred on them the rights to handle specific conflicts and to prevent crime. I argue that the studied groups utilise diverse networks of relationships as adaptive responses to landlessness, poverty, and socio-political dynamics at the local level. Material and non-material exchanges and transfers accompany these social and economic ties and networks. In addition to being instrumental in nurturing a cohesive social fabric, I argue that such alliances could be thought of as strategies of appropriation of resources in the frontiers ��� areas that are considered to have immense agricultural potential and to be conducive to economic enterprise. Consequently, these areas are continuously changed and shaped through immigration, population growth, and agricultural intensification. However, cross-cutting ties and intergroup alliances may not necessarily prevent the occurrence or escalation of conflicts. Nevertheless, disputes and conflicts, which form part of the social order in the studied area, create the opportunities for locally contextualised systems of peace and non-violence that inculcate the values of cooperation, coexistence, and restraint from violence. Although the neo-traditional institutions (local peace committees and Nyumba Kumi) face massive complexities and lack the capacity to handle serious conflicts, their application of informal constraints in dispute resolution provides room for some optimism. Notably, the formation of ties and alliances between the studied groups, and the use of local norms and values to resolve disputes, are not new phenomena ��� they are reminiscent of historical patterns. Their persistence, particularly in the context of Kenya, indicates a form of historical continuity, which remains rather ���undisturbed��� despite the prevalence of ethnicised political economies. Indeed, the formation of alliances, which are driven by mutual pursuit of commodities (livestock, rental land, and agricultural produce), markets, and diversification, tends to override other identities. While the major thrust of social science literature in East Africa has focused on the search for root causes of violence, very little has been said about the conditions and practices of cooperation and non-violent conflict resolution. In addition, situations where prior violence turned into peaceful interaction have attracted little attention, though the analysis of such transitional phases holds the promise of contributing to applicable knowledge on conflict resolution. This study is part of a larger multidisciplinary project, ���Resilience in East African Landscapes��� (REAL), which is a Marie Curie Actions Innovative Training Networks (ITN) project. The principal focus of this multidisciplinary project is to study past, present, and future thresholds and sustainable trajectories in human-landscape interactions in East Africa over the last millennia. While other individual projects focus on long-term ecosystem dynamics and societal interactions, my project examines human-landscape interactions in the present and the very recent past (i.e. the period in which events and processes were witnessed or can still be recalled by today���s population). The transition from conflict to coexistence and from competition to cooperative use of previously violently contested land resources is understood here as enhancing adaptation in the face of social-political, economic, environmental, and climatic changes. This dissertation is therefore a contribution to new modes of resilience in human-landscape interactions after a collapse situation.

"Portuguese Observatory of Taeniasis and Cysticercosis": A "One Health" example for epidemiological surveillance of one neglected disease in a European country

Cysticercosis results from the ingestion Taenia solium eggs directly by faecal-oral route or contaminated food or water. Human tapeworm carriers who have become infected after ingesting pork meat contaminated with cysticerci release these eggs. Cysticercosis occurs after tapeworm eggs are ingested by an intermediate host (pig or human) and then hatch, migrate, and lodge in the host's tissues, where they develop onto larval cysticerci. When they lodged in the central nervous system of humans, results in the disease condition called Neurocysticercosis (NCC), with a heterogeneous manifestations depending of the locations of cysts, number, size and their stage of evolution (1). Consequently the prognostic ranges from asymptomatic to situations leading to death in 2% to 9.8%. of cases (7) In swine���s there are few studies, but recent works have proved that animals, for the same reasons, also have neurological abnormalities, expressed by seizures, stereotypic walk in circles, chewing motions with foamy salivation included tonic muscle contractions followed by a sudden diminution in all muscle tone leading to collapse (2). Conventional domestic wastewater treatment processes may not be totally effective in inactivating parasites eggs from Taenia solium, allowing some contamination of soils and agricultural products (11). In Portugal there are some evidence of aggregation of human cysticercosis cases in specific regions, bases in ecological design studies (6). There are few information about human tapeworm carriers and social and economic factors associated with them. Success in knowledge and consequently in lowering transmission is limited by the complex network of biological and social factors that maintain the spread. Effective control of mostly zoonosis require One Health approach, after a real knowledge and transparency in the information provided by the institutions responsible for both animal and human health, allowing sustained interventions targeted at the transmission cycle's crucial nodes. In general, the model used to control, reflects a rural reality, where pigs are raised freely, poor sanitation conditions and incipient sanitary inspection. In cysticercosis, pigs are obligate intermediate hosts and so considered as first targets for control and used as sentinels to monitor environmental T. solium contamination (3). Usually environmental contamination with Taenia spp. eggs is a key issue in most of studies with landscape factors influencing presence of Taenia spp. antigens in both pigs and humans (5). Soil-related factors as well as socio-economic and behavioural factors are associated with the emergence of significant clustering human cysticercosis (4,5). However scarce studies has been produced in urban environmental and in developed countries with the finality to characterize the spatial pattern. There are still few data available regarding its prevalence and spatial distribution; Transmission patterns are likely to exhibit correlations as housing conditions, water supply, basic sanitation, schooling and birthplace of the individual or relatives, more than pigs rearing free, soil conditions (9). As a matter of fact, tapeworm carriers from endemic zones can auto-infect or transmit infection to other people or arrive already suffering NCC (as a result of travelling to or being a citizen from an endemic cysticercosis country) to a free cysticercosis country. Transmission is fecal-oral; this includes transmission through person-to-person contact, through autoinfection, or through contaminated food This has been happening in different continents as North America (5.4���18% been autochthonous), Europe and Australia (7). Recently, case reports of NCC have also emerged from Muslim countries. (10). Actually, different papers relate an epidemic situation in Spain and Portugal (7, 8). However the kind of study done does not authorize such conclusion. There are no evidence that infections were acquired in Portugal and there are not characterized the mode of transmission. Papers with these kind of information will be allow to have economic consequences resulted from artificial trade barriers with serious consequences for pig producers and pig meat trade. We need transparency in information���s that allow provide the basis to support the development and targeting of future effective control programmes (and prove we need that). So, to have a real picture of the disease, it is necessary integrate data from human, animal and environmental factors surrounding human and pig cases to characterize the pattern of the transmission. The design needs to be able to capture unexpected, and not common outcomes (routine data). We need to think ���One Health��� to get a genuine image of the situation.

Evaluating social and environmental impacts at Embrapa.

A strategic planning process has been implemented at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Agency (Embrapa) to introduce sustainable development objectives in all steps of agricultural Research and Development. An essential component of the institutional mission statement hence devised has called for the systematic assessment of social and environmental impacts (in addition to the traditionally studied economic ones) of all technology innovations resulting from R&D. The proposed approach emphasizes the interest of promoting close interaction between R&D teams and technology-adopting producers, under actual field contexts, in order to improve both the technology development and the demand probing processes. Given the multiplicity of technological applications ensuing from Embrapa?s very broad research encompassment, and the variety of environmental and productive contexts involved, a customized impact assessment system has been proposed. Directed at the appraisal of agricultural technology development research projects (ex-ante) as well as their ensuing innovations (ex-post), the Ambitec-Agro System comprises a set of integrated socio-environmental indicators, constructed in modules suited to Agricultural, Animal husbandry, and Agro-industrial activities, besides a specific module for Social Impact Assessment. The system has been routinely applied in technology appraisal in all of Embrapa?s Units, as a basis for their institutional performance evaluations, and toward the formulation of the annual Social Balance Report. Following the inception of this institutional technology appraisal initiative, several methodological innovations have been proposed within Embrapa, including technical improvements and applicability adaptations of the Ambitec-Agro system, and approaches to further-reaching objectives, such as the sustainable development of rural communities, and the environmental management of agricultural activities.

Reflex��o sobre alguns desafios do ensino m��dio no Brasil hoje

The purpose of this article is to develop some ideas that may contribute to the debate about the secondary education in Brazil, giving emphasis to the conditions existing in the educational institutions, the ongoing educational policies and the challenges posed by the social, economic and political reality of the country. It is also discussed the political, social and economic importance of the expansion and the compulsory character of secondary education as well as the school's culture dimension, in its relationship to the so-called knowledge society. Finally, the role of secondary education for the youth and the new demands it poses for teachers are presented, among some others aspects.

Removal torque of zirconia abutment screws under dry and wet conditions

The aim of this study was to verify whether screw abutment lubrication can generate higher preload values compared to non-lubricated screws, a titanium abutment was screwed onto an implant analog and scanned with the Procera System to generate 20 zirconia abutments. MKIII Br��nemark implants were clamped to a precision torque device, and the abutments were distributed in dry and wet groups with 10 specimens each. In the wet groups, the inner threads of the implants were filled with artificial saliva. All abutments were fastened with a Torqtite screw under 32 Ncm. Ten detorque measurements were performed per group pushing the reverse button of the Torque controller soon after screw tightening with values registered. The mean detorque values were calculated and compared by a Student's t test (?=0.05). The wet condition presented significantly higher mean detorque than the dry condition (31.5 �� 1.2 versus 27.5 �� 1.5 Ncm, respectively; p=0.0000024). In conclusion, there was always a loss in the initial torque values when the removal torque was measured under both conditions. The wet condition presented higher mean torque than the dry condition. Better preload values were established in the wet group, suggesting that the abutment screw must be lubricated in saliva to avoid further loosening.

Physiological and biochemical characterization of the assai palm (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) during seed germination and seedling growth under aerobic and anaerobic conditions

Physiological and biochemical aspects of assai palm during seed germination and early seedling growth were investigated. Seeds collected from plants growing in flooded and upland forests were used to determine the influence of normoxic (aerobic) and anoxic (anaerobic) conditions in germination and the initial and average time of development in the roots and shoots. After 75 days, seedlings germinated under normoxia were transferred to trays and submitted to flooding. Seed reserves (lipids, proteins, soluble sugars and starch) were monitored for quiescent and germinated seeds maintained under normoxic and anoxic conditions, as well as after 5, 10 and 20 days of seedling growth. Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) activity was quantified in roots and leaves of seedlings without or with flooding (partial and total). Seeds were not able to germinate under anoxia. Different strategies of storage mobilization of lipids, proteins, soluble sugars and starch were observed in seeds of each environment. ADH activity was induced by anoxia, with the highest level observed in the leaves. This study showed that, under normoxic conditions, the best developmental performance of assai palm seeds, from flooded or upland forest areas, during germination was associated with primary metabolites mobilization and seedling flooding tolerance with increased ADH activity. We conclude that the assai palm is well adapted to the anoxic conditions provoked by flooding.