Playful and creative ICT pedagogical framing : A nursery school case study

This article reports on the findings of a one-year qualitative study in which a nursery school used information and communication technology (ICT) and a digital media consultant as a catalyst for cultural change leading to teachers’ improved pedagogical framing and children’s enhanced learning dispositions. The pedagogic framing included the children making mini-movies and avatars which were uploaded onto the nursery website. It is argued that such innovative and creative ICT pedagogy was strongly motivational and afforded opportunities for coconstruction and sustained shared thinking (SST) as it engaged with children’s and families’ digital cultural habitus. The research reports on field notes, interviews and observations (n ¼ 15) of child peer interactions and teacher child interactions

Towards an understanding of Gambian teachers' lives and careers

This research shows that Gambian teachers have complex reasons for joining and remaining in the teaching profession. It builds upon the literature concerning teachers' professionalism in developing countries by describing and analysing Gambian teachers' professional discourses. This thesis argues that Gambian teachers are active participants who create 'narratives of action' which assert their professionalism. Gambian teachers understand their work as professional through the overlapping moral discourses of nationalism and Islam. These professional discourses sustain and empower Gambian teachers who often work in difficult material conditions. Current literature on teachers' professional lives and careers is predominately North American and European. By providing a 'space' within which Gambian teachers' 'storied narratives' may be heard, this thesis geographically adds to the literature on teachers' professionalism. Gambian teachers' 'genealogies of context' are based upon histories, religions and cultures different to those found within Europe or North America. Thus Gambian teachers' professionalism is situated within specific geographical and cultural discourses. Despite the concept of a Gambian situated professionalism, the thesis discusses those professional discourses which are shared between Gambian teachers and teachers in Europe and North America. This work internationally develops the concept that there are different situated professional cultures of teaching and at the same time shared professional teaching discourses

Reception Baseline Assessment and 'small acts' of micro-resistance

In September 2021, following the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Department for Education introduced a national standardised digital Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) for all English 4-year-old children. We analyse RBA and its associated Quality Monitoring Visits, as a further intensification of the new public management of early years education to produce ‘school-ready’ human capital. This paper reports on professionals' and children's responses to RBA by analysing the mixed-methods data from a nationwide survey of early years professionals (n = 1032) and six in-depth case study Reception classes with teacher interviews (n = 14) and researcher observations (n = 12). An adult thematic analysis of the responses suggests that some children and their teachers used their agency in creative ‘small acts’ of micro-resistance. These ‘small acts’ of resistance and refusal are theorised as micro-political contestations of a policy that is antithetical to early education's socio-cultural approach. More research is needed to further understand the politics of young children's rights, agency, micro-resistance and refusal

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Prognostic model to predict postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery based on a national prospective observational cohort study.

Background: Acute illness, existing co-morbidities and surgical stress response can all contribute to postoperative acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients undergoing major gastrointestinal surgery. The aim of this study was prospectively to develop a pragmatic prognostic model to stratify patients according to risk of developing AKI after major gastrointestinal surgery. Methods: This prospective multicentre cohort study included consecutive adults undergoing elective or emergency gastrointestinal resection, liver resection or stoma reversal in 2-week blocks over a continuous 3-month period. The primary outcome was the rate of AKI within 7 days of surgery. Bootstrap stability was used to select clinically plausible risk factors into the model. Internal model validation was carried out by bootstrap validation. Results: A total of 4544 patients were included across 173 centres in the UK and Ireland. The overall rate of AKI was 14·2 per cent (646 of 4544) and the 30-day mortality rate was 1·8 per cent (84 of 4544). Stage 1 AKI was significantly associated with 30-day mortality (unadjusted odds ratio 7·61, 95 per cent c.i. 4·49 to 12·90; P < 0·001), with increasing odds of death with each AKI stage. Six variables were selected for inclusion in the prognostic model: age, sex, ASA grade, preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate, planned open surgery and preoperative use of either an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. Internal validation demonstrated good model discrimination (c-statistic 0·65). Discussion: Following major gastrointestinal surgery, AKI occurred in one in seven patients. This preoperative prognostic model identified patients at high risk of postoperative AKI. Validation in an independent data set is required to ensure generalizability

Vancomycin exposure and acute kidney injury outcome: A Snapshot From the CAMERA2 Study

Among patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia from a prospective randomized clinical trial, acute kidney injury (AKI) rates increased with increasing vancomycin exposure, even within the therapeutic range. AKI was independently more common for the (flu)cloxacillin group. Day 2 vancomycin AUC ≥470 mg·h/L was significantly associated with AKI, independent of (flu)cloxacillin receipt

Procalcitonin Is Not a Reliable Biomarker of Bacterial Coinfection in People With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Undergoing Microbiological Investigation at the Time of Hospital Admission

Admission procalcitonin measurements and microbiology results were available for 1040 hospitalized adults with coronavirus disease 2019 (from 48 902 included in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infections Consortium World Health Organization Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK study). Although procalcitonin was higher in bacterial coinfection, this was neither clinically significant (median [IQR], 0.33 [0.11–1.70] ng/mL vs 0.24 [0.10–0.90] ng/mL) nor diagnostically useful (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.56 [95% confidence interval, .51–.60])