Challenges to implement evidence-based midwifery care in Bangladesh. An interview study with medical doctors mentoring health care providers.

BACKGROUND: In 2013 the first midwives in Bangladesh to be educated according to international standards completed their course and were awarded a diploma. Sixty percent of their training took place in clinical placement sites. In order to achieve appropriate mentor support while in clinical practice, a mentorship programme was initiated whereby local doctors were appointed by Save the Children. The aim of this study is to describe the mentors' purpose and the actions they took to improve midwifery care at clinical placement sites. Their appointment was intended to support local Health Care Providers (HCPs) at clinical placement sites meant for educating midwifery students in evidence-based midwifery care. METHODS: An open-ended interview study with 14 mentors. The data was analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: The main category, the theme that emerged from the analysis was "Creating commitment". "Creating commitment" describe how the mentors; the medical doctors employed by Save the Children, "Motivate", "Educate", "Mentor", "Advocate" and "Communicate" (subcategories) to creating commitment for quality midwifery care "In the organization of care" and "In clinical care practices" (categories). As intended, they enabled HCPs, midwifery students, and newly graduated midwives to provide quality midwifery care. CONCLUSIONS: Using medical doctors' status and power to support the development of a newly emerging midwifery cadre in a country where midwifery is just emerging as a profession is because midwives integrated in the health system will improve the birthing process, improve life chances for newborns, and reduce morbidity and mortality in Bangladesh. It is recommended for implementation in other similar national contexts.

Novel cross-flow electrostatic precipitator: Numerical and experimental study.

Electrostatic precipitators (ESP) are used extensively for removing particulates from a gas flow by charging the particles and then removing them in the presence of an electric field. Traditional ESP designs use the walls of the flow channel as the grounded collection surface. The objective of this present study is to evaluate a novel ESP configuration, recently patented by Ohio University's Electrostatic Laboratory, in which an array of vertical surfaces of cylindrical geometry are placed in a crossflow configuration and used as grounded collection surfaces. A numerical approach was adopted by developing and implementing User-Defined Functions (UDFs) in ANSYS Fluent computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software to build a two-dimensional cross-flow ESP model, for the first time, for the gas flow and particulate capture. The two-dimensional numerical models proved useful in shedding light on the basics of the collection process in the novel cross-flow ESP. In the studied configuration, the collection of the particles on the collector surface was limited to the anterior and posterior surfaces of the first and second collection rows, respectively. The collection at the posterior surface of the second row presented interesting behavior, with the particles becoming entrained in the wake of the collectors and the electric field from the discharge electrode located downstream that was opposite to the fluid flow direction. The output of the simulation underestimated the experimental data. The lower efficiency prediction of the model could have been due to the vibration of the collection electrodes, collection by the mist formed in the wet system, and particle agglomeration in the experiments. The results of this study provide critical information in improving the particulate efficiency of novel cross-flow ESP and other similar cross-flow ESP systems.Implications: A novel Electrostatic precipitator (ESP) configuration (recently patented) was evaluated. A numerical approach was adopted to build a cross-flow ESP model, for the first time, for the gas flow and particulate capture. The collection of the particles on the collector surface was limited to the anterior and posterior surfaces of the first and second collection rows. Also, the particles were entrained in the wake of the collectors. The output of the simulation underestimated the experimental data. The results of this study provide critical information in improving the particulate efficiency of novel cross-flow ESP and other similar cross-flow systems.

Double resonant plasmonic lattices for Raman studies.

We demonstrate radiation induced enhancement of both the in coupling of Raman excitation wavelength and Raman signal in plasmonic nanoparticle lattices. Rectangular nanoparticle lattices show two independently controllable lattice resonances, which we tune to be resonant with both the Raman excitation wavelength and the Raman transitions of rhodamine 6G molecules. We demonstrate that these narrow and intense resonances produced by the nanoparticle lattices allow for Raman transition specific enhancements. The system allows for independent tuning of both resonance conditions, enabling an efficient and versatile platform for Raman studies of various molecules.

Large-angle beaming from asymmetric nanoslit-corrugation structures.

The beaming effect in single apertures surrounded by periodic corrugations and the manipulation of beaming directions from such structures has gained considerable attention since discovery. Different materials and structural profiles have been studied in this context but directional beaming at angles larger than 45° has not been achieved. We design and demonstrate nanoslits in a gold film flanked by corrugations, which give rise to beaming angles ranging from 45° to 60°. While the previous designs are based on achieving constructive interference at the aimed beaming angle, our approach complements such constructive interference with destructive interference at 0° and, as a result, enhances the directional beaming effect at angles larger than 45°. The structures are fabricated by electron beam lithography with two consecutive lift-off processes. The experimental far-field intensity distributions agree well with the designs.

Influence of Fano resonance on SERS enhancement in Fano-plasmonic oligomers.

Plasmonic oligomers can provide profound Fano resonance in their scattering responses. The sub-radiant mode of Fano resonance can result in significant near-field enhancement due to its light trapping capability into the so-called hotspots. Appearance of these highly localized hotspots at the excitation and/or Stokes wavelengths of the analytes makes such oligomers promising SERS active substrates. In this work, we numerically and experimentally investigate optical properties of two disk-type gold oligomers, which have different strength and origin of Fano resonance. Raman analysis of rhodamine 6G and adenine with the presence of the fabricated oligomers clearly indicates that an increment in the strength of Fano resonance can improve the Raman enhancement of an oligomer significantly. Therefore, by suitable engineering of Fano lineshape, one can achieve efficient SERS active substrates with spatially localized hotspots.