The role of healthcare providers in expanding legal abortion: Qualitative insights from Argentina, Ireland, and South Korea.

Abortion laws are key in creating an enabling environment that facilitates the advancement of people's sexual and reproductive health and rights. Around 50 countries have liberalized their abortion laws in the last decades by adding new grounds allowing abortion. The road toward the expansion of legal abortion is a long, highly sensitive, and difficult process. The specific role of healthcare providers in influencing abortion law reforms has been scarcely studied. With the objective to better understand their (potential) roles, a qualitative study was conducted in 2021 focusing on three countries that had recently liberalized their abortion regulations: Argentina, South Korea, and Ireland. For each country, key informant interviews were conducted with actors in advocacy for legal change, the majority with healthcare providers. The study results indicate that healthcare providers can contribute to the expansion of legal abortion through their influence on public and legal debates. Healthcare providers were found to be scientifically credible and trustworthy. Their voice and argumentation counteracted anti-rights arguments and addressed information gaps, by providing specific clinical experiences and medical information. Healthcare providers amplified women's experiences through their testimonies and had entry points within governmental bodies, which facilitated their advocacy. These healthcare providers often functioned as individual operating obstetrician/gynecologists or general practitioners who were engaged in networks of health professionals or had previous advocacy experience. In a global context of social and political contention around abortion, extending the engagement of healthcare providers in law and policy deliberation on abortion appears to be useful. This requires recognizing the diversity of roles that healthcare providers can take up, creating a safe environment in which they can operate, equipping them with skills that go beyond the medical expert role and facilitating strategic partnerships that seek complementarity between multiple stakeholders, building on the uniqueness of each stakeholder's expertise.

Primary and Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation from Asphalt Pavements.

Asphalt is ubiquitous across cities and a source of organic compounds spanning a wide range of volatility and may be an overlooked source of urban organic aerosols. The emission rate and composition depend strongly on temperature, but emissions have been observed at both application temperatures and surface temperatures during warm sunny days. Here we report primary organic aerosol (POA) emissions and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) production from asphalt. We reheated real-world asphalt samples to application-relevant temperatures (∼130 °C) and typical summertime road-surface temperatures (∼55 °C) and then flushed the emitted vapors into an environmental oxidation chamber containing ammonium sulfate seed particles. SOA was then formed following the photo-oxidation of emissions under high-NOx conditions typical of urban atmospheres. We find that POA only forms at application temperature as it does not require further oxidation, whereas SOA forms under both conditions; with the resulting POA and SOA both being semi-volatile. While total OA formation rates were substantially greater under the limited time spent under application conditions, SOA formation from passive asphalt heating presents a potential long-term source, as heating continues for the lifetime of the road surface. This suggests that persistent asphalt solar heating is likely a considerable and continued source of summertime SOA in urban environments.

Feasibility of a Low-Power, Low-Resolution Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Instrument for Analysis of Nickel Alloys: Quantification of the Major Alloying Elements and Classification.

A simple cost-effective laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument was used for quantification of major elements in several nickel alloys and also sorting them. A compact low-power diode-pumped solid-state laser and a miniature low-resolution spectrometer were assembled for the LIBS instrument. Material properties of the nickel alloys depend mainly on the composition of the major elements, Ni, Cr, and Fe, ranging from a few to ∼60 wt%. The emission peaks at 547.7 nm, 520.4 nm, and 438.1 nm for Ni, Cr, and Fe, respectively, were chosen for this analysis. The analytical performance was found to be enough for the quantification of Ni, Cr, and Fe in the nickel alloys. Limits of detection and accuracy were estimated to be a few weight percent (wt%) and measurement precisions were less than 10% in terms of relative standard deviation. The calibration performance of this intensity-based method was compared with that of the "ratio method" which is used in conventional optical emission spectroscopy analyses. The comparison indicates that the intensity-based method is more appropriate with the low-performance LIBS instrument that detects emission peaks of only a few major elements. Also, multivariate modeling of the six different nickel alloy samples based on the emission peak intensities of Ni, Cr, and Fe was performed using k-nearest neighbors (KNN) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA). The KNN and ordinary LDA models showed 95.0% and 98.3% classification correctness for the separate test data set, respectively. To improve classification performance further, the two-step LDA model was trained. In this approach, the two closest sample classes responsible for the decrease in the classification correctness were separately modeled in the second step to exploit their difference effectively. The two-step LDA model showed 100% correctness in classifying the test objects. Our results indicate that such a low-performance LIBS instrument can be effectively utilized for quantitative analysis of the major elements in the nickel alloys and their rapid identification or sorting in combination with an appropriate multivariate modeling algorithm.

Self-managed medication abortion in South Korea: A retrospective records review of the uptake of medication abortion through online telemedicine prior to decriminalization.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the uptake of medication abortion through online telemedicine in South Korea prior to decriminalization of abortion beginning in 2019. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a descriptive cross-sectional analysis of medication abortion consultations submitted to Women on Web, an online telemedicine service, from South Korea between 2013 and 2019. RESULTS: The uptake of medication abortion through Women on Web increased every year between 2013 and 2019, adding up to 12,115 consultations across 7 years. The median age was 25 and the median gestational age was 37 days. Individuals reported financial constraints (66.2%) as the most common reason for wanting an abortion. This was followed by not wanting a child at this point (64.7%) and wanting to finish school (34.6%). CONCLUSIONS: This study illustrates the uptake of medication abortions via Women on Web between 2013 and 2019, prior to decriminalization of abortion in South Korea. IMPLICATIONS: This study attests to the use of online telemedicine for medication abortion, despite the legal restrictions prior to decriminalization of abortion in South Korea.

Molecular Detection of Haplorchis pumilio Eggs in Schoolchildren, Kome Island, Lake Victoria, Tanzania.

A survey of intestinal helminths targeting 1,440 schoolchildren in 12 primary schools on Kome Island (Lake Victoria), Tanzania, revealed small trematode eggs in 19 children (1.3%), seemingly of a species of Haplorchis or Heterophyes. The eggs were molecularly confirmed to be Haplorchis pumilio on the basis of 18S and 28S rDNA sequences.

Statistical evidence of recharge and supply controlling nitrate variability at springs discharging from the upper Floridan Aquifer.

Over the last several decades, rising nitrate concentrations in springs discharging from north Florida's karstic Upper Floridan Aquifer have coincided with proliferation of algae in Florida spring runs and subsequent ecosystem degradation. As agriculture and development are primary contributors to groundwater nitrate and are predicted to continue expanding, understanding unique contributions and transmission pathways of nitrate pollution is vital to restoring impaired spring ecosystems. In this study, we use statistics and signal processing to analyze continuous nitrate timeseries data collected over five years at four north Florida springs. We quantified a significant, low-frequency annual signal in nitrate concentrations superimposed on increasing nitrate trends. We show nitrate concentrations at springs increase during the rainy season, potentially in response to recharge and seasonal fertilizer application. Thus, we suggest seasonal fluctuations observed in nitrate concentrations are caused by increased recharge of nutrient-rich soil waters through fractures that deliver water on relatively short timescales to conduits during the rainy season. We further speculate the steady, monotonically increasing concentration is maintained by accumulation of Nitrogen as slow flow through matrix porosity through the remainder of the year. Seasonal nitrate concentrations resulting from flow through karst aquifers may thus be poorly simulated using equivalent porous media models that are increasingly being used for nutrient management, because they do not capture heterogenous flow and transport dynamics.

Limited Secondary Organic Aerosol Production from Acyclic Oxygenated Volatile Chemical Products.

Volatile chemical products (VCPs) have recently been identified as potentially important unconventional sources of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), in part due to the mitigation of conventional emissions such as vehicle exhaust. Here, we report measurements of SOA production in an oxidation flow reactor from a series of common VCPs containing oxygenated functional groups and at least one oxygen within the molecular backbone. These include two oxygenated aromatic species (phenoxyethanol and 1-phenoxy-2-propanol), two esters (butyl butyrate and butyl acetate), and four glycol ethers (carbitol, methyl carbitol, butyl carbitol, and hexyl carbitol). We measured gas- and particle-phase products with a suite of mass spectrometers and particle-sizing instruments. Only the aromatic VCPs produce SOA with substantial yields. For the acyclic VCPs, ether and ester functionality promotes fragmentation and hinders autoxidation, whereas aromatic rings drive SOA formation in spite of the presence of ether groups. Therefore, our results suggest that a potential strategy to reduce urban SOA from VCPs would be to reformulate consumer products to include less oxygenated aromatic compounds.

χ-separation: Magnetic susceptibility source separation toward iron and myelin mapping in the brain.

Obtaining a histological fingerprint from the in-vivo brain has been a long-standing target of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In particular, non-invasive imaging of iron and myelin, which are involved in normal brain functions and are histopathological hallmarks in neurodegenerative diseases, has practical utilities in neuroscience and medicine. Here, we propose a biophysical model that describes the individual contribution of paramagnetic (e.g., iron) and diamagnetic (e.g., myelin) susceptibility sources to the frequency shift and transverse relaxation of MRI signals. Using this model, we develop a method, χ-separation, that generates the voxel-wise distributions of the two sources. The method is validated using computer simulation and phantom experiments, and applied to ex-vivo and in-vivo brains. The results delineate the well-known histological features of iron and myelin in the specimen, healthy volunteers, and multiple sclerosis patients. This new technology may serve as a practical tool for exploring the microstructural information of the brain.

SAO2Vec: Development of an algorithm for embedding the subject-action-object (SAO) structure using Doc2Vec.

In natural-language processing, the subject-action-object (SAO) structure is used to convert unstructured textual data into structured textual data comprising subjects, actions, and objects. This structure is suitable for analyzing the key elements of technology, as well as the relationships between these elements. However, analysis using the existing SAO structure requires a substantial number of manual processes because this structure does not represent the context of the sentences. Thus, we introduce the concept of SAO2Vec, in which SAO is used to embed the vectors of sentences and documents, for use in text mining in the analysis of technical documents. First, the technical documents of interest are collected, and SAO structures are extracted from them. Then, sentence vectors are extracted through the Doc2Vec algorithm and are updated using word vectors in the SAO structure. Finally, SAO vectors are drawn using an updated sentence vector with the same SAO structure. In addition, document vectors are derived from the document's SAO vectors. The results of an experiment in the Internet of things field indicate that the SAO2Vec method produces 3.1% better accuracy than the Doc2Vec method and 115.0% better accuracy than SAO frequency alone. This proves that the proposed SAO2Vec algorithm can be used to improve grouping and similarity analysis by including both the meanings and the contexts of technical elements.

The Role of Reproductive Justice Movements in Challenging South Korea's Abortion Ban.

This paper examines how issues related to abortion have historically been influenced by population control policies in South Korea and how the contemporary reproductive justice movement in South Korea has contributed to social change. On April 11, 2019, South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled that the ban on abortion was unconstitutional. As a result, South Korea's legislature must revise the 66-year-old anti-abortion law by December 31, 2020. This historic decision was closely related to the advocacy of a number of feminist groups, doctors' organizations, disability rights groups, youth activists, and religious groups in South Korea, who collectively formed the Joint Action for Reproductive Justice (Joint Action) in 2017. This paper describes the activism and actions of Joint Action as a key part of reproductive justice movements in Korea. Joint Action was initiated by an organization for women with disabilities, and once formed, they worked collectively to frame abortion as a social justice issue that goes beyond the pro-choice versus pro-life binary. By focusing on the composition, strategies, and main agenda of Joint Action, this paper analyzes how Joint Action influenced the Constitutional Court's 2019 decision to decriminalize abortion in South Korea and how the court established that it is the government's responsibility to ensure every individual's reproductive health and rights.

Reproductive technologies as population control: how pronatalist policies harm reproductive health in South Korea.

Through the examination of pronatalist policies introduced in South Korea within the last decade, the aim of this commentary is to assess how such policies could harm women's reproductive health if they are practiced only for the purpose of population control. South Korea is a country with one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, and to increase population growth, since 2005, the Korean government has heavily regulated and promoted the use of reproductive technologies, including abortion technologies and assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). This represents a dramatic shift from South Korea's historically antinatalist position: from the 1960s to the 1980s, abortion was widely practiced and encouraged by the government to reduce population growth, and the use of ARTs went unsupported by the government. However, when the total fertility rate reached 1.08 in 2005, the government strictly prohibited abortion and started promoting the use of ARTs to increase the nation's birthrate. Although under the current pronatalist policies, the Korean government has provided unprecedented incentives to couples seeking to have children, such as expanded maternal/paternal leave and childcare benefits, ironically, reproductive health indicators, such as maternal mortality and infant mortality, have not improved and, in some cases, have even worsened because the pronatalist policies fail to consider women's reproductive health and rights issues.

Source apportionment of PM2.5 using positive matrix factorization (PMF) at a rural site in Korea.

The sources of different pollutants contributing to ambient fine particles (PM2.5) on Daebu Island, Korea, were estimated. Twenty four hour integrated filter samples were collected from May 21-November 1, 2016, and analyzed for organic carbon, elemental carbon, ions, and trace elements. Positive matrix factorization was conducted on the PM2.5 chemical speciation data from the samples to define the pathways and sources of PM2.5 at the sampling site. A total of 80 samples and 24 chemical species were used to run the model and a total of nine sources were identified: secondary sulfate (29.0%), mobile (22.0%), secondary nitrate (13.2%), oil combustion (10.1%), coal combustion (9.4%), aged sea salt (7.9%), soil (5.6%), non-ferrous smelting (1.7%), and industrial activity (1.1%). Conditional probability and potential source contribution functions were then used to determine whether these sources were local or came from pollutants transported over long-range distances. The anthropogenic sources came from local emissions and originated from both industrialized and metropolitan areas, whereas the secondary inorganic aerosols were strongly influenced by the long-range transport of air pollutants from Shandong and Jiangsu provinces in China.

Effects of ultrasonic pretreatment on quantity and composition of bacterial DNA recovered from granular activated carbon used for drinking water treatment.

Effects of ultrasonic pretreatment on bacterial DNA recovery from granular activated carbon (GAC) were investigated. GAC (Calgon F400), biologically activated, was sampled from an actual drinking water plant. Different ultrasonic energy densities (0-400 J·cm(-3)) were applied with agitation (250 rpm for 30 min), and recovered bacterial DNA was quantified using quantitative PCR. Energy density was linearly correlated with the concentration of carbon fines produced from GAC during ultrasonication. Ultrasonication alone had no effect on DNA recovery at ≤60 J·cm(-3), but a strongly adverse effect at >67 J·cm(-3) due to the produced carbon fines. Agitation along with ultrasonication strongly enhanced the bacterial DNA recovery when ≤40 J·cm(-3) was applied, although it did not affect the production of carbon fines. Ribosomal tag pyrosequencing was used to compare recovered bacterial communities (0, 20 and 30 J·cm(-3) with or without agitation). Ultrasonication allowed for obtaining a more diverse and richer bacterial community from GAC, compared with the control. Agitation did not show a positive effect on community organization (richness and diversity). Consistently, canonical correspondence analysis indicated that the energy density was associated with the relative abundances of particular bacterial members (P < 0.05), while agitation did not. Correspondence analysis revealed that the recovered bacterial communities were grouped according to the applied energy densities. In conclusion, ultrasonication and agitation influence the recovered DNA in quality and quantity, respectively, and carbon fines as a by-product by ultrasonication interfere with the DNA recovery.

The role of nitric oxide in the dysregulation of the urine concentration mechanism in diabetes mellitus.

Uncontrolled diabetes mellitus results in osmotic diuresis. Diabetic patients have lowered nitric oxide (NO) which may exacerbate polyuria. We examined how lack of NO affects the transporters involved in urine concentration in diabetic animals. Diabetes was induced in rats by streptozotocin. Control and diabetic rats were given L-NAME for 3 weeks. Urine osmolality, urine output, and expression of urea and water transporters and the Na-K-2Cl cotransporter were examined. Predictably, diabetic rats presented with polyuria (increased urine volume and decreased urine osmolality). Although metabolic parameters of control rats were unaffected by L-NAME, treated diabetic rats produced 30% less urine and osmolality was restored. UT-A1 and UT-A3 were significantly increased in diabetic rat inner medulla. While L-NAME treatment alone did not alter UT-A1 or UT-A3 abundance, absence of NO prevented the upregulation of both transporters in diabetic rats. Similarly, AQP2 and NKCC2 abundance was increased in diabetic animals however, expression of these transporters were unchanged by L-NAME treatment of diabetes. Increased expression of the concentrating transporters observed in diabetic rats provides a compensatory mechanism to decrease solute loss despite persistent glycosuria. Our studies found that although diabetic-induced glycosylation remained increased, total protein expression was decreased to control levels in diabetic rats treated with L-NAME. While the role of NO in urine concentration remains unclear, lowered NO associated with diabetes may be deleterious to the transporters' response to the subsequent osmotic diuresis.