Ethnobotanical research under the COVID-19 pandemic: assessing a remote method for documenting Indigenous plant-related knowledge

Background: In response to the limitations on fieldwork imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we describe and assess a remote method for documenting plant-related knowledge, using smartphones that requires no in-person interaction between an on-site Indigenous community and off-site researchers. Methods: The on-site team identified the Indigenous taxa, created equivalents of photo vouchers, and recorded their names and uses as voice messages using a smartphone, thereby learning about plants from one another. They then sent the data using WhatsApp messages to the off-site team, who identified the botanical names of the taxa, and analyzed the plant-related knowledge. Results: We assess the remote, collaborative, and transdisciplinary quality of the method, factoring in communication, audiovisual documentation, species identification, knowledge exchange, logistics, and ethics. Despite the problems we experienced with identifying taxa growing in high forest and translation issues that complicated the documentation of plant uses, the method was on the whole a success. It allowed the on-site team to activate their passive knowledge of their language and share their knowledge with their relatives. The off-site team identified 57% of the recorded 54 taxa to species level and documented their names and uses as primary audio data, which keep on enhancing the quality of the documentation. Conclusions: Smartphones can be used as research tools during periods of restricted physical access, but also to extend research beyond the fleeting field visits and to elevate the empirical standard of ethnobotany when it comes to language data. We see such remote research solutions not as replacements for in-person collaborations, but as valid and dynamically evolving research methods in their own right. © 2023, Ilia State University, Institute of Botany, Department of Ethnobotany. All rights reserved.

Changing Teacher Educational Contexts: Global Discourses in Teacher Education and Its Effect on Teacher Education in National Contexts

Teacher education has gathered interest globally and nationally among teachers, educators, researchers and policy makers. Madalinska-Michalak, O 'Doherty and Assuno Flores (2018) observe that regional/ national, social, economic, political and historical factors impact upon teacher education and 'it is also impacted by global problems and tendencies' (pp. 567). This paper builds on these debates and examines the effects of global discourses of teacher education in the national contexts of developed and developing countries, for example, Guyana, Japan, South Africa, United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). This includes consideration of teacher education and training before and during the current global COVID-19 pandemic (UNESCO, 2020). The paper concludes that teacher education continues to be under scrutiny due to global and national expectations, the demand of and how they are positioned in preparing teachers for the 21st century. Notwithstanding, as globalisation becomes more integrated in societies globally teacher education curricula not only has to retain its emphasis on standards, but equally its agility to ensure that the needs of all learners are met.

Everyday urbanisms in the pandemic city: a feminist comparative study of the gendered experiences of Covid-19 in Southern cities

Drawing on GenUrb's comparative research undertaken in mid-2020 with communities in five cities—Cochabamba, Bolivia, Delhi, India, Georgetown, Guyana, Ibadan, Nigeria, and Shanghai, China—we engage in an intersectional analysis of the gendered impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in women's everyday lives. Our research employs a variety of context-specific methods, including virtual methods, phone interviews, and socially-distanced interviews to engage women living in neighbourhoods characterized by underdevelopment and economic insecurity. While existing conditions of precarity trouble the before-and-after terminology of Covid-19, across the five cities the narratives of women's everyday lives reveal shifts in spatial-temporal orders that have deepened gendered and racial exclusions. We find that limited mobilities and the different and changing dimensions of production and social reproduction have led to increased care work, violence, and strained mental health. Finally, we also find that social reproduction solidarities, constituting old and new circuits of care, have been reinforced during the pandemic.

Iwokrama in Guyana, South America, and Indigenous Shared Governance of Rainforest During a Pandemic: Use It or Lose It?

Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development, located in Guyana, was established in 1996. It was intended to conserve rainforest in this often overlooked - yet ecologically invaluable - corner of South America, which forms the edge of the Amazon biome. It was also founded to serve as a model of shared governance with Indigenous populations and to function as a test site for sustainable rainforest use. This case summarizes its history and takes us to the period of 2020-2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down tourism and logging. The end of this legal (if controversial) economic activity in the region and the skyrocketing price of gold created the perfect storm for illegal - and much more damaging - exploitation. Specifically, mining and associated harmful human activity expanded into Iwokrama's territory. In addition to these immediate and acute threats, the leadership of Iwokrama was confronted with an existential question about their path forward. Readers of this case are invited to consider options for the institution, both in terms of process (especially the inclusion of Indigenous preferences), regulation (what activities to permit and promote within the region), and action. Readers of this case can expect to learn about the context of this region and organization and will acquire familiarity with various perspectives and multidimensional dilemmas related to Indigenous shared governance, sustainable natural resource use, and conservation. This will enable readers to better evaluate, articulate, and advocate for positions in comparable contexts elsewhere. © 2022 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Where There Is No Paediatric Intensivist: Building Critical Care Capacity and Implementing a Pandemic Response Team in Guyana

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Building formal Paediatric Critical Care Medicine (PCCM)capacity provides a significant opportunity for meaningful impact on quality of life and mortality rates in Low Middle Income Countries (LMICs). In a global pandemic, it becomes even more essential to provide critical care to this vulnerable population.To meet the challenges of developing PCCM in Guyana, we utilized a student centered, Micro-Modular Fellowship (MMF) strategy which utilized standardised curricula (PFCCS, PALS, NRP, etc.), bespoke courses (Ventilation, POCUS, etc.), open source simulation, and teleconferenced lectures from PICUs around the world. Training the Trainer, Psychological Safety and High Yield Pedagogy, were key components in optimising both PCCM program sustainability and clinical outcomes in Guyana. METHOD(S): Didactics were immediately reinforced by student driven, case based simulations which often drew from grand rounds and were conducted in an environment in which psychological safety, continuous feedback dynamic process improvement, and High Performance Teamwork were constantly emphasized. RESULT(S): Our multidisciplinary team was able to build and sustain the first paediatric critical care unit in Guyana. Since 2018, over five hundred children have benefited from the establishment of this unit. In addition, our established strategy also resulted in rapid capacity building and mobilisation of a Paediatric COVID 19 response team to the 2020 pandemic surge in Guyana. CONCLUSION(S): Our High Yield Pedagogy approach optimised rapid knowledge acquisition and lasting translation into paediatric critical care medicine practiceacross multiple practice milieus in Guyana.It may provide a useful model for building sustainable PCCM capacity in other LMICs.

Developing Breast Imaging Services in Low-Resource Settings

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for women worldwide, and its incidence continues to increase, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).3 There is relatively higher mortality from breast cancer in LMICs compared to high-income countries (HICs), which may be due to differences in tumor biology, limited awareness about breast cancer on the part of patients or healthcare providers, and lack of access to screening, diagnostic, and treatment services.1,5-8 Without structured screening programs or easily accessible imaging and intervention, breast cancer in LMICs is more commonly diagnosed at a late stage (stage III or IV) compared to HICs.3 While early-stage breast cancer is largely curable with appropriate surgical, oncologic, and radiation therapy, late-stage breast cancer has a much higher morbidity and mortality rate.4,9 Furthermore, late-stage breast cancer requires more advanced therapies, which are difficult to come by in the low-resource setting. The Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) have published comprehensive guidelines suggesting how resources should be allocated toward various aspects of breast cancer care depending on resource availability.12,13 We also adhere to a phased implementation approach to build capacity gradually without overwhelming our partners.14 Our first step of program planning, therefore, is always a thorough assessment of our target population and the local availability of screening, diagnostic services (imaging, tissue sampling, and pathology) and treatment. [...]we plan with an eye toward sustainability to ensure our interventions lead to lasting improvement. There is also evidence that ultrasound may be a useful screening tool in areas where mammography is unfeasible.17 In the United States, RAD-AID launched a longitudinal collaboration with the Black Women's Health Imperative (BWHI), National Alliance of Hispanic Health, and Hologic Inc.'s Project Health Equality to bring awareness to and address long-standing healthcare disparities that affect women of color.18 In this initiative, we collaborate with and support primary care centers that are already serving medically underserved women of color as well as tertiary centers interested in improving access to specialty care for women who need it most.

Household waste generation, change in waste composition and the exposure to COVID-19 in Guyana and Nigeria.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted humans' activities across the globe. Measures related to social/physical distancing and lockdown have led to a shift and increase in waste generated at households' level. This study examined waste generation, composition and the implications for exposure during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Guyana and Nigeria. The study adopted a mixed-method design to collect qualitative and quantitative data. Owing to adherence to social/physical distancing, an online Google Form survey was administered and phone interviews were conducted with waste managers in Nigeria and Guyana. Findings showed that the volumes of waste had increased and there was a mixture of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) with the municipal waste. Also, the majority of the respondents in both countries were concerned that solid waste has the potential to contribute to contamination and spreading of the pandemic. A paired sample T-test analysis indicated an increase in the use of PPE. The values of t = 19.46 and t = 23.73 at p ≥ 0.05 in Nigeria and Guyana, respectively were significant. Waste mostly contaminated, as submitted by the respondents, were cans, bottles, plastics and all biodegradable wastes while the most probable point of contamination as noted by the waste managers occurred at the point of waste collection. Therefore, sorting of waste at household levels and training of personnel involved in waste management should be done with an emphasis on adherence to COVID-19 protocol and enforcement of same to prevent the spread of the virus.

Forecasting Covid-19 New Cases in Guyana

In this study, the ANN approach was applied to analyze COVID-19 new cases in Guyana. The employed data covers the period 1 January 2020 – 25 March 2021 and the out-of-sample period ranges over the period 26 March – 31 July 2021. The residuals and forecast evaluation criteria (Error, MSE and MAE) of the applied model indicate that the model is quite stable. The results of the study indicate that daily COVID-19 cases in Guyana are likely to generally surge over the out-of-sample period. Amongst other suggested policy directions, there is need for the government of Guyana to ensure adherence to safety guidelines while continuing to create awareness about the COVID-19 pandemic.