What role do and might feminist methodologies, with their prioritisation of ethical and political questions and interventions, have in creating futures? What kinds of futures are needed? What kinds of feminist imaginations should be cultivated, and how? What world-making practices might feminism (further) develop and/or invent? In the context of war, climate breakdown, pandemics, the resurgence of far-right politics, political upheaval and poverty, this special issue examines the role of feminist methods in creating futures that are desirable and necessary. This introduction to the special issue argues that feminism is especially well-equipped to examine and build new futures and that imagining and making different worlds can be helpfully understood as methods. We sketch out four key themes that we see as significant within the wide, varied and growing literatures on feminist futures and that are particularly important for the contributions gathered together here: .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article collectively discusses creative feminist approaches to ethnographic methods developed in response to challenging social, personal, environmental, and temporal conditions and pressures. Patchwork Ethnography, developed by Gökçe Günel, Saiba Varma and Chika Watanabe, recognises mundane pressures, and works with insights and experiences that emerge not only from doing research, but from what happens around the edges. By rendering the many 'seams' of research visible and valuable, their approach aims to develop creative, kind, and more generous - yet no less robust - research realities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: An accurate, rapid, non-sputum-based triage test for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB) is needed.
Methods: A prospective evaluation of the Xpert-MTB-HR cartridge, a prototype blood-based host-response mRNA signature assay, among individuals presenting with TB-like symptoms was performed in Pakistan and results were compared to three reference standards: Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra, bacteriological confirmation (Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra and/or culture positivity), and composite clinical diagnosis (clinician diagnosis, treatment initiation, Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra, and/or culture positivity). Analyses were conducted both for the entire study cohort and separately in the adolescent and young adult cohort (ages 10-24).
There have been growing concerns about the well-being of staff in inpatient mental health settings, with studies suggesting that they have higher burnout and greater work-related stress levels than staff in other healthcare sectors. When addressing staff well-being, psychological safety can be a useful concept. However, there is no measure of psychological safety that is suitable for use in inpatient mental health settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Poor mental health in medical students is a global concern. Effective interventions are required, which are tailored towards the training-related stressors medical students experience. The Reboot coaching programme is an online, tailored intervention based on cognitive-behavioural principles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Urology trainees experience high burnout, and there is an urgent need for acceptable and effective interventions. The current study evaluated Reboot coaching workshops (Reboot-C), a tailored intervention based on cognitive-behavioural principles, with urology trainees.
Objective: Our primary objective was to evaluate the acceptability of Reboot-C among urology trainees.
The COVID-19 pandemic has foregrounded the significance of time to everyday life, as the routines, pace, and speed of social relations were widely reconfigured. This article uses rhythm as an object and tool of inquiry to make sense of spatio-temporal change. We analyse the Mass Observation (MO) directive we co-commissioned on 'COVID-19 and Time', where volunteer writers reflect on whether and how time was made, experienced, and imagined differently during the early stages of the pandemic in the UK.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article contributes to sociologies of futures by arguing that quotidian imaginations, makings and experiences of futures are crucial to social life. We develop Sharma's concept of recalibration to understand ongoing and multiple adjustments of present-future relations, focusing on how these were articulated by Mass Observation writers in the UK during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. We identify three key modes of recalibration: , where a break between the present and future means the future is difficult to imagine; , where the present is expanded but there is an alertness to the future, and; , where futures are modestly and radically recalibrated through a post-pandemic imaginary.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims And Objectives: The critical care nursing workforce is in crisis, with one-third of critical care nurses worldwide intending to leave their roles. This paper aimed to examine the problem from a wellbeing perspective, offering implications for research, and potential solutions for organisations.
Design: Discursive/Position paper.
Introduction: Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent sodium channel blocker, with significant neurotoxicity, found in marine animals like pufferfish and blue-ringed octopus. The severity of toxicity depends on the amount of toxin ingested and the outcome depends on the time-lapse to appropriate medical care.
Cases Report: We report five patients who presented with tetrodotoxin poisoning after consuming fried internal organs of local pufferfish from the coast of Oman.
Florida red tides have become more common and persistent in and around the Gulf of Mexico. When in bloom, red tides can produce brevetoxins in high concentrations, leading to human exposures primarily through contaminated food and ocean spray. The research described here includes adapting and validating a commercial brevetoxin water test kit for human plasma testing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA nurse recalls an important lesson she learned in her early days of maternity care nursing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClinical trials for Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections (SAB) are broadly grouped into 2 categories: registrational trials intended to support regulatory approval of antibiotics for the treatment of SAB and strategy trials intended to inform clinicians on the best treatment options for SAB among existing antibiotics. Both types of SAB trials are urgently needed but have been limited by cost, complexity, and regulatory uncertainty. Here, we review key SAB trial design considerations for investigators, sponsors, and regulators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA method was developed to detect and quantify organophosphate nerve agent (OPNA) metabolites in dried blood samples. Dried blood spots (DBS) and microsampling devices are alternatives to traditional blood draws, allowing for safe handling, extended stability, reduced shipping costs, and potential self-sampling. DBS and microsamplers were evaluated for precision, accuracy, sensitivity, matrix effects, and extraction recovery following collection of whole blood containing five OPNA metabolites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAim: An immunomagnetic capture protocol for use with LC-MS was developed for the quantitation of saxitoxin (STX) in human urine.
Materials & Methods: This method uses monoclonal antibodies coupled to magnetic beads. STX was certified reference material grade from National Research Council, Canada.
Paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs), including gonyautoxins and saxitoxins, are produced by multiple species of microalgae and dinoflagellates, and are bioaccumulated by shellfish and other animals. Human exposure to PSTs typically occurs through ingestion of recreationally harvested contaminated shellfish and results in nonspecific symptomology. Confirmation of exposure to PSTs has often relied on the measurement of saxitoxin, the most toxic congener; however, gonyautoxins (GTXs), the sulfated carbamate derivatives of saxitoxin, may be present in shellfish at higher concentrations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPublic health response to large scale chemical emergencies presents logistical challenges for sample collection, transport, and analysis. Diagnostic methods used to identify and determine exposure to chemical warfare agents, toxins, and poisons traditionally involve blood collection by phlebotomists, cold transport of biomedical samples, and costly sample preparation techniques. Use of dried blood spots, which consist of dried blood on an FDA-approved substrate, can increase analyte stability, decrease infection hazard for those handling samples, greatly reduce the cost of shipping/storing samples by removing the need for refrigeration and cold chain transportation, and be self-prepared by potentially exposed individuals using a simple finger prick and blood spot compatible paper.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTetrodotoxin (TTX) is an extremely potent paralytic toxin responsible for yearly illness and death around the world. A clinical measurement is necessary to confirm exposure because symptoms of TTX intoxication cannot be distinguished from other paralytic toxins. Our group has developed an online solid phase extraction hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) method for the analysis of TTX in human urine with tandem mass spectrometry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSaxitoxin (STX) and neosaxitoxin (NEO) are potent neurotoxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). PSP typically occurs through the ingestion of bivalve shellfish that have consumed toxin producing dinoflagellates. Due to initial presentation of symptoms being nonspecific, a clinical measurement is needed to confirm exposure to these toxins.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough nerve agent use is prohibited, concerns remain for human exposure to nerve agents during decommissioning, research, and warfare. Exposure can be detected through the analysis of hydrolysis products in urine as well as blood. An analytical method to detect exposure to five nerve agents, including VX, VR (Russian VX), GB (sarin), GD (soman), and GF (cyclosarin), through the analysis of the hydrolysis products, which are the primary metabolites, in serum has been developed and characterized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOxygen fluctuation patterns in preterm infants who develop retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) are varied and poorly represented in animal models. We examined the hypothesis that clustered (CL) episodes of hypoxia during hyperoxia results in a more severe form of oxygen-induced retinopathy (OIR) than dispersed episodes. Rat pups were exposed to alternating cycles of 1) 50% O2 with three CL episodes of 12% O2 every 6 h; or 2) 50% O2 with one episode of 12% O2 every 2 h, for 7 (P7) or 14 (P14) days postnatal age.
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