How do informal information sources influence women’s decision-making for birth? A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies

Background: Women approach birth using various methods of preparation drawing from conventional healthcare providers alongside informal information sources (IIS) outside the professional healthcare context. An investigation of the forms in which these informal information sources are accessed and negotiated by women, and how these disconnected and often conflicting elements influence women’s decision-making process for birth have yet to be evaluated. The level of antenatal preparedness women feel can have significant and long lasting implications on their birth experience and transition into motherhood and beyond. The aim of this study was to provide a deeper understanding of how informal information sources influence women’s preparation for birth. Methods: Seven electronic databases were searched with predetermined search terms. No limitations were imposed for year of publication. English language studies using qualitative methods exploring women’s experiences of informal information sources and their impact upon women’s birth preparation were included, subject to a quality appraisal framework. Searches were initiated in February 2016 and completed by March 2016. Studies were synthesised using an interpretive meta-ethnographic approach. Results: Fourteen studies were included for the final synthesis from Great Britain, Australia, Canada and the United States. Four main themes were identified: Menu Birth; Information Heaven/Hell; Spheres of Support; and Trust. It is evident that women do not enter pregnancy as empty vessels devoid of a conceptual framework, but rather have a pre-constructed embodied knowledge base upon which other information is superimposed. Allied to this, it is clear that informal information was sought to mitigate against the widespread experience of discordant information provided by maternity professionals. Conclusion: Women’s access to the deluge of informal information sources in mainstream media during pregnancy have significant impact on decision making for birth. These informal sources redefine the power dynamic between women and maternal healthcare providers, simultaneously increasing levels of anxiety and challenging women’s pre- existing ideations and aspirations of personal birth processes. A lack of awareness by some professionals of women’s information seeking behaviours generates barriers to women-centred support, leaving an experience expectation mismatch unchecked

SARS-CoV-2 infection produces chronic pulmonary epithelial and immune cell dysfunction with fibrosis in mice

A subset of individuals who recover from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) develop post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), but the mechanistic basis of PASC-associated lung abnormalities suffers from a lack of longitudinal tissue samples. The mouse-adapted severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) strain MA10 produces an acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in mice similar to humans. To investigate PASC pathogenesis, studies of MA10-infected mice were extended from acute to clinical recovery phases. At 15 to 120 days post-virus clearance, pulmonary histologic findings included subpleural lesions composed of collagen, proliferative fibroblasts, and chronic inflammation, including tertiary lymphoid structures. Longitudinal spatial transcriptional profiling identified global reparative and fibrotic pathways dysregulated in diseased regions, similar to human COVID-19. Populations of alveolar intermediate cells, coupled with focal up-regulation of pro-fibrotic markers, were identified in persistently diseased regions. Early intervention with antiviral EIDD-2801 reduced chronic disease, and early anti-fibrotic agent (nintedanib) intervention modified early disease severity. This murine model provides opportunities to identify pathways associated with persistent SARS-CoV-2 pulmonary disease and test countermeasures to ameliorate PASC., After recovery from acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, mice exhibit chronic lung disease similar to some humans, allowing for testing of therapeutics

Genomics and introgression: Discovery and mapping of thousands of species-diagnostic SNPs using RAD sequencing

Abstract Invasive hybridization and introgression pose a serious threat to the persistence of many native species. Understanding the effects of hybridization on native populations (e.g., fitness consequences) requires numerous species-diagnostic loci distributed genome-wide. Here we used RAD sequencing to discover thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are diagnostic between rainbow trout (RBT, Oncorhynchus mykiss), the world’s most widely introduced fish, and native westslope cutthroat trout (WCT, O. clarkii lewisi) in the northern Rocky Mountains, USA. We advanced previous work that identified 4,914 species-diagnostic loci by using longer sequence reads (100 bp vs. 60 bp) and a larger set of individuals (n = 84). We sequenced RAD libraries for individuals from diverse sampling sources, including native populations of WCT and hatchery broodstocks of WCT and RBT. We also took advantage of a newly released reference genome assembly for RBT to align our RAD loci. In total, we discovered 16,788 putatively diagnostic SNPs, 10,267 of which we mapped to anchored chromosome locations on the RBT genome. A small portion of previously discovered putative diagnostic loci (325 of 4,914) were no longer diagnostic (i.e., fixed between species) based on our wider survey of non-hybridized RBT and WCT individuals. Our study suggests that RAD loci mapped to a draft genome assembly could provide the marker density required to identify genes and chromosomal regions influencing selection in admixed populations of conservation concern and evolutionary interest.</jats:p