This study examines the representation of mourning as a form of political resistance in Dust by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor. Moving beyond the conventional perception of grief as a private emotional experience, the novel reconfigures mourning as a collective, historical, and political act deeply embedded in Kenya’s postcolonial realities. Situating Dust within Kenya’s post-independence history, it argues that mourning transcends private sorrow to become a collective and subversive act that challenges state-sanctioned silence and historical erasure. Through fragmented narratives, silenced histories, and embodied trauma, Dust exposes how national grief emerges from unresolved violence, state betrayal, and suppressed memory. The methodology is based on qualitative textual analysis, employing close reading of narrative structure, characterization, and symbolism, while drawing on postcolonial theory, trauma studies, and memory studies to interpret the text within its socio-political context. The result reveals that the novel configures that mourning functions as both a critique of state power and a means of reclaiming agency. Moreover, it presents grief as collective and subversive force that disrupts official national narratives, recovers marginalized histories, and exposes unresolved trauma. Ultimately, mourning emerges not as a passive suffering but as an active practice that resists erasure and calls for historical accountability of national healing. The analysis draws on postcolonial theory and trauma studies to demonstrate that mourning in the novel functions as both a critique of state power and a means of reclaiming agency. It is a language through which marginalized voices reclaim suppressed histories. Moreover, findings reveal that mourning is similar to grief which becomes a powerful tool through which marginalized voices challenge official narratives and reconstruct alternative histories. Ultimately, Dust portrays mourning not as passive suffering, but as an active and necessary resistance against political amnesia and systemic injustice.

Background: Blood transfusion safety is a major issue in transfusion medicine. Adverse transfusion reactions (ATRs) are necessary to identify to maintain blood transfusion safety. Our study aimed to determine the frequency and different type of ATRs in diabetes subjects reported in a tertiary hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Materials and Methods: It was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducting in a tertiary care hospital in Dhaka in duration on June 2025 and December 2025. ATRs were evaluated by the blood transfusion officer and classified using standard definitions. Results: A total of 253 units of whole blood were transfused, 190 units transfused in diabetic subjects and 63 units in health subjects respectively. In total subjects 68% ATRs were found, involving allergic (17%), delayed hemolytic reactions and Transfusion-associated circulatory overload (TACO) (17%), Transfusion-Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI) reaction (3%), bacterial contamination 7%, RBC destruction to foreign antigen (4%) and brady cardiac 3%) were noticed. Among 190 diabetic subjects, 68.4% ATRs were observed including 15.6% delayed Hemolytic reactions, 16.8% allergic reaction, 17.9% TACO, 3.2% TRALI reaction, 7.9% bacterial contamination, 4.7% RBC destruction to foreign antigen reaction and 2.1% brady cardiac reactions which were higher (p=ns) rate than health subjects. Conclusion: Our study concluded that 68% ATRs were noticed in total subject where as 68.4% ATRs noticed in diabetic subjects that carries high infection rate. Safe blood transfusion services may have decreased these ATRs issues.

Background: Preterm prelabour rupture of membranes (PPROM) is an important obstetric complication associated with maternal morbidity, prematurity and adverse neonatal outcomes. Identification of associated risk factors and assessment of pregnancy outcomes are essential for improving maternal and neonatal care. Objective: To evaluate the potential risk factors and pregnancy outcomes among women with PPROM admitted to a tertiary-level hospital. Methods: A descriptive observational study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh, over six months from 27 February 2019 to 26 August 2019. Fifty pregnant women with PPROM between 28 and 36⁺⁶ weeks of gestation were enrolled consecutively and followed until delivery. Sociodemographic characteristics, obstetric history, clinical presentation, potential risk factors, mode of delivery, maternal complications and neonatal outcomes were recorded and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The mean maternal age was 23.5 ± 9.54 years, and 42.0% were aged 21–25 years. Most women were multigravida (62.0%) and presented at 34–36⁺⁶ weeks (74.0%). Anaemia (28.0%), urinary tract infection (26.0%) and previous caesarean section (24.0%) were the most frequently identified potential risk factors. Caesarean section was performed in 82.0% of cases. Urogenital infection (34.0%) was the most common maternal complication. All newborns were premature, while neonatal sepsis occurred in 30.0% and birth asphyxia in 24.0%. Neonatal mortality was 8.0%. Conclusion: PPROM was associated with substantial maternal and neonatal morbidity. Early identification of associated factors, appropriate antenatal care, prompt management and adequate neonatal support are important to improve outcomes.

The study investigated stress and its effect on pregnant student teachers in Ghana. The specific objective of this study is to identify sources and effects of stress experienced by pregnant student teachers. This exploratory case study design sampled 18 pregnant Student-teachers from the two selected colleges through a convenience sampling technique. Key findings revealed multiple stress sources, including physical, academic, social, and psychological. The study concluded that pregnant student-teachers at the Colleges face significant stress from multiple sources, which can adversely affect their academic performance and well-being. It was recommended that the Colleges implement comprehensive support measures, including regular counselling sessions, support groups, and stress management workshops to address emotional needs. Additionally, improving accommodation facilities, providing tailored uniforms, offering special dietary provisions, and ensuring flexible academic schedules or maternity leave are vital measures to support the unique needs of pregnant student-teachers

This study explored the relationship between strategic management practices and environmental sustainability of electricity distribution firms in South-South, Nigeria. The motivation for this study is the need for the development of organizations' practices oriented towards sustainability that can have a positive impact on the sustainable management and ecological responsibility, which are increasingly present in today's environmental issues. Strategic planning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and strategic control were the measures of strategic management practices. The theories of dynamic capabilities theory, stakeholder theory and resource-based view theory have been used as a basis of the study. This research used the cross-sectional research design and it was anchored on the positivism philosophy. The subjects of the study were eight hundred ninety-eight (898) respondents of PHCN and BEDC. It resulted 278 respondents based on Taro Yamane formula, stratified and simple random sampling technique. The data were collected through primary data which was in the form of structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and Spearman rank correlation coefficient were used to analyse data at 5% level of significance. The results obtained, showed that the four dimensions of strategic planning namely strategic planning, strategic formulation, strategic implementation and strategic control were positive and statistically significant with the environmental sustainability. The study concluded that strategic management activities led to high level of improvement in environmental sustainability management. The study recommended on the need for more sustainability planning, effective implementation of strategies, more sustainability-oriented policies and environmental monitoring. The study added to the body of knowledge offering empirical data on the linkage between strategic management and environmental sustainability of the public utility organisations in Nigeria.

The plant arrived in India by sea from distant land. It was not mentioned in any religious scriptures. It emerged on the wall of a temple in Karnataka. After that it became a symbol of the trinity. It also became a vehicle for goddess Lakshmi & God Yama eventually. It became a metaphor/grammar for human relations. That’s how India absorbs the foreign completely while forgetting the memory of the absorption. It is the betel leaf that the paragraph & the article refers to. In marriages especially in Eastern India, betel leaf is hold over fire for a few seconds & put on the cheeks of the bride & groom as a blessing for the couple. To protect the betel vines in Odisha state, people did not allow the POSCO steel company of South Korea to set up a steel plant in eastern Odisha. This was to ensure that the land on which the betel vines are grown is not given for setting up the steel plant. The incident reminds us that the betel leaf is so much inter-wined in the lives of Indians. It is very hard to find a place in India that does not have a paan/betel leaf shop. The current article blends the leaf with its various associated modalities & finally links the homoeopathic system of medicine to the leaf & its accompaniments. It discusses the homoeopathic medicines prepared from all these accompaniments. Homoeopathy was foreign to India as it came from Germany where as betel leaf was also foreign to India as it came from Indonesia & Malayasia. Currently both are part of the very essence of the Indian culture.

Anthropometric indices are very simple ratios based on linear measurements of the head and face and for more than a century have influenced the description of variation in head and facial form by anatomists, physical anthropologists and clinicians. This review attempts to trace the history of three commonly used indices: the cephalic (cranial) index, the facial index and the nasal index, from their beginnings in the nineteenth century in the field of craniometry to their current use in forensic applications, surgical procedures and paediatric assessment. The paper examines the evolution of measurement technique, from callipers, fixed anatomical landmarks to a more recent three-dimensional scanning and geometric morphometrics. The formula, population variation and classification categories for each index are discussed and the clinical or forensic importance of the index is discussed. The review also addresses the difficult history of these measurements, especially the use of these measures for classification of race in the nineteenth century, and how the discipline has shifted to more cautious, population-specific, and statistically-based interpretations. It finds that although traditional indices still serve as a rapid, inexpensive and convenient screening tool, the value of these indices is limited unless they are used in conjunction with three dimensional and statistical shape analysis methods.