The introduction of Montessori teaching and learning practices in an early childhood classroom in a remote Indigenous school

The purpose of this research was to observe and describe the effect of Montessori pedagogy in a remote Aboriginal Early Childhood program to ascertain whether this alternative approach to education provides a more culturally appropriate practice than past methods. The significance of the study lies in the need to close the gap (Department of Premier & Cabinet [DPMC], 2016, p.1) between the achievement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. The study endeavours to describe the effect of Montessori pedagogy through the response of those most closely associated with Aboriginal education: students, parents, caregivers, community members and educational professionals. Three dimensions of the context contributed to an understanding of this study. These three dimensions were: geographical setting, the Ngaanyatjarra Lands School Network and the Papulankutja Remote Community/Campus. These contextual dimensions outline the background, setting and environment where this study was undertaken. The review of literature highlighted three topics, which formed the conceptual framework for this inquiry. These topics were: current policies and practices in Early Childhood education in Australia; current policies and practices in Aboriginal education; and principles and practices in Montessori pedagogy. The theoretical framework for this study was located within the interpretive paradigm of qualitative research. Specifically, the interpretive lens underpinning this inquiry was that of phenomenology. The methodology used in the research was an individual case study that sought to explore the effect of Montessori pedagogy with remote Aboriginal Early Childhood students in the Papulankutja Remote Community. The individual case study utilised four methods of data collection: video recording and observational framework by the teacher-researcher; journal writing by the teacher-researcher; ten observational frameworks by the critical friend; and three one-on-one interviews with the informant. The method of data analysis for the qualitative data followed a format similar to that outlined by Miles and Huberman (1994): data collection, data reduction, data display and conclusion drawing. The data were coded v and analysed according to themes taken from the four specific research questions for this study. The findings of this research are consistent with four themes: student response to Montessori pedagogy, student behaviour in response to Montessori pedagogy, language development within Montessori pedagogy, and community involvement within the early childhood classroom. The findings suggest that various fundamental characteristics of Montessori pedagogy align with traditional Aboriginal child rearing techniques such as autonomy and movement. In addition, Montessori teaching pedagogy provides Aboriginal and Islander Education Officers with a consistent collection of teaching activities and materials to work one-on-one with students in the home language (Ngaanyatjarra) before transitioning to Standard Australian English. The results of this research have the potential to inform future educational practices for Aboriginal students in remote communities

The impact of an acute chest pain pathway on the investigation and management of cardiac chest pain

Emergency department (ED) presentation with chest pain accounts for approximately 20% of acute hospital admissions, and delays in the investigation and management of these patients increase the pressure on emergency and medical departments. We implemented a pathway within our trust to improve the efficiency of acute chest pain management. This included the development of a chest pain management algorithm, a short-stay heart assessment centre and a policy to immediately transfer acute coronary syndrome patients to cardiology. The introduction of the chest pain pathway resulted in fewer admissions from the ED with chest pain (34.2% vs 19.0%; p<0.0001), a reduction in time from ED attendance to cardiology transfer (9.3 hours vs 5.7 hours; p<0.0001) and a reduction in time to angiography (62.5 hours vs 26.6 hours; p<0.0001). Length of stay was reduced for cardiology patients (4.7 days vs 2.4 days, p<0.001) and mean length of stay for all patients attending ED with chest pain was reduced by 8.3 hours (27.5 hours vs 19.1 hours; p<0.0001). The changes have significantly improved the management of acute chest pain within our trust and we would suggest that adoption of these changes in other trusts could significantly improve the quality of the care for these patients throughout the NHS.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the publisher URL to access it via the publisher's site.pre-print, post-print (12 month embargo), publishers version/PDF (12 month embargo

Aerial Stars: Femininity, Celebrity & Glamour in the Representations of Female Aerialists in the UK & USA in the 1920s and Early 1930s

The research conducted in this doctoral thesis was rewritten and published as ‘Female Aerialists in the 1920s and early 1930s: Femininity, Celebrity and Glamour’ by Routledge in November 2021. The book expands the ideas in this thesis by incorporating new scholarship, additional primary sources and new information on the aerialists Barbette and Winnie Colleano. It also includes new information on the contemporary significance of these artists that takes in changes in the industry and includes analysis of the celebrity singer and aerialist P!nk. The book is available via the DOI in this recordFemale solo aerialists of the 1920s and early 1930s were internationally popular performers in the largest live mass entertainment of the period in the UK and USA. Yet these aerialists and this period in circus history have been largely forgotten by scholars. I address this omission by arguing these stars should be remembered for how they contributed to strength being incorporated into some stereotypes of femininity. Analysing in detail Lillian Leitzel, Luisita Leers and, to a lesser extent the Flying Codonas, I employ a cross-disciplinary methodology unique to aerial scholarship that uses embodied understanding to reinvigorate archival resources. This approach allows me to build on the wider scholarly histories of Peta Tait, drawing important conclusions about the form including how weightlessness is constructed and risk is performed. In the introduction I re-evaluate the nostalgic histories of circus to establish circus’ and aerialists’ popularity in this period, before exploring how engagements shaped careers. Chapter 1 considers the difference in experiencing aerialists in the USA and UK by bringing together previously unrelated data on circus, variety and vaudeville venues. Aerialists made good celebrities because their acts, located above audience members’ heads, challenged the conventional relationship between ticket prices and sightlines. Chapter 2 explores how the kinaesthetic fantasy evoked by experiencing aerial action created glamour and how glamour had the power to reframe femininity in the 1920s. Glamour and celebrity have often been confused and Chapter 3 distinguishes the two before considering what characterises aerial celebrity. Reconfiguring Joseph Roach’s public intimacy as skilful vulnerability allows me to analyse how risk was gendered and performed in relationship to skill. The gendering of risk leads me to consider what in society contributed to aerial stardom by drawing upon Richard Dyer’s argument that celebrities embody a cultural ambiguity. Female aerialists reframed their femininity in a similar way to women who aspired to the modern girl stereotype in wider society. In the final chapter I expand on the activity of the modern girl, comparing strategies used by young exercising women to female aerialists. This enables me to draw conclusions about how witnessing these stars tapped into national ideas of citizenship, and to designate aerialists as the first to use the power of glamour to make muscular femininity acceptable.AHR

Quran Burning and Religious Hatred: A Comparison of American, International, and European Approaches to Freedom of Speech

This Note examines the legal ramifications of Quran burning both in the United States and abroad, locating the recent international trend of Quran burning within the context of the new realities in the world after 9/11. With the rise of terrorism, an increasingly vitriolic and polarized political dialogue, and the ever-increasing ubiquity of the Internet, the profile of these issues will continue to grow. The public burning of Qurans highlights some of the more controversial aspects of the American First Amendment as well as suggests the true dangers of the European limitations on free speech. The significant risks the United States assumes when it allows controversial speech are still less than the grave risks people could otherwise take when the state is allowed to decide what is acceptable speech, like in the European model

Leader, follower, and nonleader patterns in emergent leadership

In the present research 82 freshmen at the University of Richmond who had previously been administered the Omnibus Personality Inventory (OPI) volunteered for a short discussion session after which each student completed a 9 item leadership scale on each of the other group members. A multiple regression analysis revealed a significant correlation between the Social Extroversion scale of the UPI and ratings of group participation (r=.38, \u3c.01). A post hoc multiple discriminant analysis identified 7 OPI scales which discriminated 64.4% of the cases into correct leadership groups. These findings support a leader-follower-nonleader paradigm for small croup participation, identifying unique personality configurations for each group -- leaders who participate actively and who organize the group process, followers who offer suggestions congeniality and nonreaders who either refuse to interact or become antagonistic to group goals. Suggestions for future research include a need for observer ratings of group interactions as well as more extensive personality measures of social variables such as dominance and social desirability

Health visitors’ views on promoting oral health and supporting clients with dental health problems: a qualitative study

Background - Inequalities in dental decay in young children persist, resulting in high admission rates for general anaesthetics for tooth extractions. Health visitors have the potential to improve dental attendance and oral health in families least likely to engage with dental services. There is little evidence on health visitor views on this. Methods - Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 17 health visitors working in both affluent and deprived areas in a single UK city. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, anonymized and analysed following a constructivist grounded theory approach. Results - Knowledge of oral health was high and health visitors requested oral health education specific to the communities they worked in. Health visitors reported effective, formal referral processes to other health services but not to primary NHS dental services even when dealing with infants in pain. Health visitors interviewed were largely unaware of specific NHS dental services which reduce barriers to dental care including interpreting services and dental services for children with additional needs. Conclusions - Health visitors interviewed were knowledgeable and enthusiastic about oral health but not about dental services. Inadequate links with NHS dental services may limit their effectiveness in oral health improvement and this needs to be addressed

Evaluation of the ‘Be Innovative’ Design and Electronic Engineering Challenge 2014 and Chinese students’ response

UK and global economies need innovative graduates with cross-disciplinary knowledge and skills. In order to promote innovation and creativity among Chinese students ‘Be Innovative!’, an electronic engineering and design themed educational challenge, was created by the British Council in China. Partnering for this project were six UK universities: University of Central Lancashire, Coventry University, University of Huddersfield, Kingston University, Royal College of Art and Sheffield Hallam University. Additional partners included the National Institute of Education Sciences and a media partner YouKu.com. http://bcchallenge2014.wix.com/beinnovative The 2014 Challenge focused on interdisciplinary practices between electronic engineering and design. It aimed to encourage the development of independent research, problem-solving, teamwork and project management skills amongst Chinese students, while simultaneously fostering recognition of the UK as an excellent provider of interdisciplinary education. The objectives were to: • Give Chinese students a chance to experience the innovative and exciting nature of UK education, • Promote the UK as a top study destination in a creative and interactive way, • Demonstrate the academic and research excellence of UK universities, and • Interact with Chinese schools and universities to nurture strategic partnerships. The Challenge was issued to Chinese Middle Schools and Universities in April 2014. Interdisciplinary teams were asked to combine innovative elements of electronic engineering and design to develop proposals for future products that would support people's wellbeing. The response was excellent: 189 teams from 19 middle schools and 66 teams from 26 universities successfully registered. Over 1000 participants from 16 cities entered the competition, and more than 3000 students from 5 middle schools attended promotional presentations. 416, 381 public votes were received for uploaded videos produced by participating teams during the preliminary stage (15 July – 18 Aug 2014). The best 50 teams from middle schools and 30 teams from universities qualified for the second, online stage (September-October 2014), when the teams worked closely with UK academics and postgraduates to further develop their ideas. Ten teams were selected by the UK staff and by Chinese voting public to compete in the “Be Innovative” final in Beijing on 29 November 2014, streamed live to millions of Chinese viewers http://edu.163.com/special/liuxue/beinnovative.html. The winning teams will visit UK partner universities in 2015. This presentation will take the form of a brief overview of the ‘Be Innovative’ Challenge by staff from three of the UK institutions involved, followed by an interactive Q&A session where a number of research questions arising from the experience will be addressed, including: • What are the main challenges in running international projects at this scale? • What are the limitations of Virtual Learning Environments (in this case OpenMoodle) in encouraging interaction with overseas students, and what are the implication for (long) distance learning? • To what extent does the success of such interdisciplinary initiatives rely on academic goodwill and close collaboration between partners? • The project relied heavily on the experience of UK partners involved in earlier incarnations of similar international interdisciplinary projects between Design and Science. To what extent does the nature of the disciplines involved change the interdisciplinary experience? • Do the same differences and similarities between disciplines occurring in the UK appear on a global platform? • How can the learning from this initiative be applied to different interdisciplinary projects currently taking place in the UK institutions involved

Exploring quantum chaos with a single nuclear spin

Most classical dynamical systems are chaotic. The trajectories of two identical systems prepared in infinitesimally different initial conditions diverge exponentially with time. Quantum systems, instead, exhibit quasi-periodicity due to their discrete spectrum. Nonetheless, the dynamics of quantum systems whose classical counterparts are chaotic are expected to show some features that resemble chaotic motion. Among the many controversial aspects of the quantum-classical boundary, the emergence of chaos remains among the least experimentally verified. Time-resolved observations of quantum chaotic dynamics are particularly rare, and as yet unachieved in a single particle, where the subtle interplay between chaos and quantum measurement could be explored at its deepest levels. We present here a realistic proposal to construct a chaotic driven top from the nuclear spin of a single donor atom in silicon, in the presence of a nuclear quadrupole interaction. This system is exquisitely measurable and controllable, and possesses extremely long intrinsic quantum coherence times, allowing for the observation of subtle dynamical behavior over extended periods. We show that signatures of chaos are expected to arise for experimentally realizable parameters of the system, allowing the study of the relation between quantum decoherence and classical chaos, and the observation of dynamical tunneling.Comment: revised and published versio

Cohort profile: Canadian study of prediction of death, dialysis and interim cardiovascular events (CanPREDDICT)

Background: The Canadian Study of Prediction of Death, Dialysis and Interim Cardiovascular Events (CanPREDDICT) is a large, prospective, pan-Canadian, cohort study designed to improve our understanding of determinants of renal and cardiovascular (CV) disease progression in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The primary objective is to clarify the associations between traditional and newer biomarkers in the prediction of specific renal and CV events, and of death in patients with CKD managed by nephrologists. This information could then be used to better understand biological variation in outcomes, to develop clinical prediction models and to inform enrolment into interventional studies which may lead to novel treatments. Methods/Designs: Commenced in 2008, 2546 patients have been enrolled with eGFR between 15 and 45 ml/min 1.73m2 from a representative sample in 25 rural, urban, academic and non academic centres across Canada. Patients are to be followed for an initial 3 years at 6 monthly intervals, and subsequently annually. Traditional biomarkers include eGFR, urine albumin creatinine ratio (uACR), hemoglobin (Hgb), phosphate and albumin. Newer biomarkers of interest were selected on the basis of biological relevance to important processes, commercial availability and assay reproducibility. They include asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP), troponin I, cystatin C, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), interleukin-6 (IL6) and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1). Blood and urine samples are collected at baseline, and every 6 monthly, and stored at −80°C. Outcomes of interest include renal replacement therapy, CV events and death, the latter two of which are adjudicated by an independent panel. Discussion: The baseline distribution of newer biomarkers does not appear to track to markers of kidney function and therefore may offer some discriminatory value in predicting future outcomes. The granularity of the data presented at baseline may foster additional questions. The value of the cohort as a unique resource to understand outcomes of patients under the care of nephrologists in a single payer healthcare system cannot be overstated. Systematic collection of demographic, laboratory and event data should lead to new insights. The mean age of the cohort was 68 years, 90% were Caucasian, 62% were male, and 48% had diabetes. Forty percent of the cohort had eGFR between 30–45 mL/min/1.73m2, 22% had eGFR values below 20 mL/min/1.73m2; 61% had uACR < 30. Serum albumin, hemoglobin, calcium and 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels were progressively lower in the lower eGFR strata, while parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels increased. Cystatin C, ADMA, NT-proBNP, hsCRP, troponin I and IL-6 were significantly higher in the lower GFR strata, whereas 25(OH)D and TGFβ1 values were lower at lower GFR. These distributions of each of the newer biomarkers by eGFR and uACR categories were variable