PurposeThis paper describes a set of recommendations that will aid universities planning to create sustainability education programs. These recommendations are not specific to curriculum or programs but are instead recommendations for academic institutions considering a shift towards “sustainability education” in the broadest sense. The purpose of this research was to consider the possible directions for the future of sustainability education at the university level.Design/methodology/approachThrough a series of workshops using a “value focused thinking” framework, a small team of researchers engaged a large number of stakeholders in a dialogue about sustainability education at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada. Recommendations were compiled from workshop data as well as data from 30 interviews of participants connected with decision‐making and sustainability at UBC.FindingsThe recommendations include infusing sustainability into all university decisions, promoting and practicing collaboration and transdisciplinarity and focusing on personal and social sustainability. Other recommendations included an integration of university plans, decision‐making structures and evaluative measures and the integration of the research, service and teaching components of the university. There is a need for members of the university community to create space for reflection and pedagogical transformation.Originality/valueThe intention of the paper is to outline the details of a participatory workshop that uses value‐focused thinking in order to engage university faculty and administration in a dialogue about sustainability education. Students, faculty and staff working towards sustainability education will be able to adapt the workshop to their own institutions.
Objective To develop a prospective perinatal registry that characterizes all deliveries, differentiates between stillbirths and early neonatal deaths (ENDs), and determines the ratio of fresh to macerated stillbirths in the northwest Democratic Republic of Congo. Method Birth outcomes were obtained from 4 rural health districts. Results A total of 8230 women consented, END rate was 32 deaths per 1000 live births, and stillbirth rate was 33 deaths per 1000 deliveries. The majority (75%) of ENDs and stillbirths occurred in neonates weighing 1500 g or more. Odds of stillbirth and END increased in mothers who were single or who did not receive prenatal care, and among premature, low birth weight, or male infants. The ratio of fresh to macerated stillbirths was 4:1. Conclusion Neonates weighing 1500 g or more at birth represent a group with a high likelihood of survival in remote areas, making them potentially amenable to targeted intervention packages. The ratio of fresh to macerated stillbirths was approximately 10-fold higher than expected, suggesting a more prominent role for improved intrapartum obstetric interventions.
A specific probe for detecting ecotropic murine leukemia virus sequences was constructed by cloning a 500-base-pair DNA segment, corresponding to a portion of the env region of the AKR ecotropic virus, in a pBR322/Escherichia coli K-12 host/vector system. This probe was used to screen the cellular DNAs of six inbred strains of mice for the presence of ecotropic retroviral DNA sequences by the Southern blot hybridization procedure. Three copies of ecotropic viral DNA were detected in AKR/N (a high-ecotropic virus strain) and two were found in BALB/c (a low-ecotropic virus strain) DNAs. As expected, no sequences reactive with this probe were found in NFS mouse DNA (a virus-negative strain). However, cellular DNA sequences that reacted strongly with the ecotropicsecific DNA probe were detected in certain NZB, C57L, and 129 mice (all virus-negative strains). In contrast to the reactive sequences in AKR and BALB/c, the reactions were chiefly associated with EcoRI segments that were subgenomic in size. The chromosomal DNA of inbred and feral mice contains multiple copies of sequences reactive with murine leukemia virus (MuLV) nucleic acid probes (1-7). Among these sequences are complete, potentially infectious genomes of ecotropic and xenotropic viruses (8), the complete genetic information of amphotropic and additional xenotropic viruses that apparently cannot be expressed as infectious viruses in inbred mice (ref. 9; unpublished data), proviral DNA that is expressed only in the form of viral antigens (10-12), and probably many subgenomic viral DNA segments that are not expressed.Because of their abundance in mouse chromosomal DNA and the extensive polynucleotide sequence homology between large portions of the genomes of the various classes of MuLV, little is known about the molecular organization of the endogenous proviral DNA sequences of the particular MuLV types. Although absorption of labeled MuLV cDNA with purified viral RNA from a heterologous MuLV decreases the crossreaction with endogenous sequences (6, 7), such probes still hybridize to a significant extent to related proviruses present in mouse DNA. Clearly, the preparation of nucleic probes that recognize type-specific regions of proviral DNA would offer great advantages.The molecular cloning of AKR ecotropic MuLV (AKV) DNA (13) has made it possible to generate such a probe. We have subcloned, in Escherichia colt K-12 with a pBR322 vector, a portion of the AKV env gene region that is specific for ecotropic viruses in the operational sense that it does not react either with cellular DNA prepared from the prototype ecotropic-negative mouse strain NFS/N or with genomic DNA of a xenotropic MuLV.We describe here the construction and characterization of the recombinant plasmid, illustrate the strategy developed for using the cloned DNA to identify endogenous ecotropic proviruses, and report the presence of a unique set of nucleotide sequences reactive with this probe in the DNA of several mouse strains that, like NFS/N, are biologically negative for...
Background The Global Network for Women's and Children’s Health Research (Global Network) conducts clinical trials in resource-limited countries through partnerships among U.S. investigators, international investigators based in in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and a central data coordinating center. The Global Network’s objectives include evaluating low-cost, sustainable interventions to improve women’s and children’s health in LMICs. Accurate reporting of births, stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal mortality, and measures of obstetric and neonatal care is critical to determine strategies for improving pregnancy outcomes. In response to this need, the Global Network developed the Maternal Newborn Health Registry (MNHR), a prospective, population-based registry of pregnant women, fetuses and neonates receiving care in defined catchment areas at the Global Network sites. This publication describes the MNHR, including participating sites, data management and quality and changes over time. Methods Pregnant women who reside in or receive healthcare in select communities are enrolled in the MNHR of the Global Network. For each woman and her offspring, sociodemographic, health care, and the major outcomes through 42-days post-delivery are recorded. Study visits occur at enrollment during pregnancy, at delivery and at 42 days postpartum. Results From 2010 through 2018, the Global Network MNHR sites were located in Guatemala, Belagavi and Nagpur, India, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Zambia. During this period at these sites, 579,140 pregnant women were consented and enrolled in the MNHR, nearly 99% of all eligible women. Delivery data were collected for 99% of enrolled women and 42-day follow-up data for 99% of those delivered. In this supplement, the trends over time and assessment of differences across geographic regions are analyzed in a series of 18 manuscripts utilizing the MNHR data. Conclusions Improving maternal, fetal and newborn health in countries with poor outcomes requires an understanding of the characteristics of the population, quality of health care and outcomes. Because the worst pregnancy outcomes typically occur in countries with limited health registration systems and vital records, alternative registration systems may prove to be highly valuable in providing data. The MNHR, an international, multicenter, population-based registry, assesses pregnancy outcomes over time in support of efforts to develop improved perinatal healthcare in resource-limited areas. Trial Registration The Maternal Newborn Health Registry is registered at Clinicaltrials.gov (ID# NCT01073475). Registered February 23, 2019. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01073475
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