Children reading alone and reading together: literary representations and lessons from a pandemic

This article first explores three literary representations of young people who are immersed in books by focusing on Alice’s sister in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Matilda. It argues that these characters create solitary reading experiences by being absorbed in books which provides escapism and company. It considers how representations of literary children immersed in books can provide a model of this type of reading behaviour for child readers, provided that these representations are sufficiently diverse. The article then focuses on primary literacy education in the United Kingdom and discusses how policy requirements can mean that children’s school reading experiences are often shared rather than solitary ones. It draws on a recent study of children’s reading habits (Topping, 2021) to highlight how children’s increased enjoyment in reading during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic can be partly attributed to them having more time to read alone, which enabled them to become immersed in a story and made them feel better about being isolated. The article concludes by arguing that children need to have more opportunities in school to be alone with books to allow for immersive reading experiences

Clinical and Angiographic Factors Associated With Asymptomatic Restenosis After Percutaneous Coronary Intervention

BACKGROUND: Angiographic restenosis after percutaneous coronary interventional procedures is more common than recurrent angina. Clinical and angiographic factors associated with asymptomatic versus symptomatic restenosis after percutaneous coronary intervention were compared. METHODS AND RESULTS: All patients with angiographic restenosis from the BENESTENT I, BENESTENT II pilot, BENESTENT II, MUSIC, WEST 1, DUET, FINESS 2, FLARE, SOPHOS, and ROSE studies were analyzed. Multivariate analysis evaluated 46 clinical and angiographic variables, comparing those with and without angina. The 10 studies recruited 2690 patients who underwent percutaneous revascularization and 6-month follow-up angiography (86% of those eligible). Restenosis (>/=50% diameter stenosis) occurred in 607 patients and was clinically silent in 335 (55%). Male sex (P=0.008), absence of antianginal therapy with nitrates (P=0.0002) and calcium channel blockers (P=0.02) at 6 months, greater reference diameter after the procedure (P=0.04), greater reference diameter at follow-up (P=0.004), and lesser lesion severity (percent stenosis) at 6 months (P=0.0004) were univariate predictors of asymptomatic restenosis. By multivariate analysis, only male sex (P=0.04), greater reference diameter at follow-up (P=0.002), and lesser lesion severity at 6 months (P=0.0001) were associated with restenosis without angina. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately half of patients with angiographic restenosis have no symptoms. The only multivariate predictors of silent restenosis at 6 months were male sex, greater reference diameter at follow-up, and lesser lesion severity on follow-up angiography

Women, men and coronary heart disease: a review of the qualitative literature

Aim. This paper presents a review of the qualitative literature which examines the experiences of patients with coronary heart disease. The paper also assesses whether the experiences of both female and male patients are reflected in the literature and summarizes key themes. Background. Understanding patients' experiences of their illness is important for coronary heart disease prevention and education. Qualitative methods are particularly suited to eliciting patients' detailed understandings and perceptions of illness. As much previous research has been 'gender neutral', this review pays particular attention to gender. Methods. Published papers from 60 qualitative studies were identified for the review through searches in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PREMEDLINE, PsychINFO, Social Sciences Citation Index and Web of Science using keywords related to coronary heart disease. Findings. Early qualitative studies of patients with coronary heart disease were conducted almost exclusively with men, and tended to generalize from 'male' experience to 'human' experience. By the late 1990s this pattern had changed, with the majority of studies including women and many being conducted with solely female samples. However, many studies that include both male and female coronary heart disease patients still do not have a specific gender focus. Key themes in the literature include interpreting symptoms and seeking help, belief about coronary 'candidates' and relationships with health professionals. The influence of social roles is important: many female patients have difficulties reconciling family responsibilities and medical advice, while male patients worry about being absent from work. Conclusions. There is a need for studies that compare the experiences of men and women. There is also an urgent need for work that takes masculinity and gender roles into account when exploring the experiences of men with coronary heart disease

An exploration of concepts of community through a case study of UK university web production

The paper explores the inter-relation and differences between the concepts of occupational community, community of practice, online community and social network. It uses as a case study illustration the domain of UK university web site production and specifically a listserv for those involved in it. Different latent occupational communities are explored, and the potential for the listserv to help realize these as an active sense of community is considered. The listserv is not (for most participants) a tight knit community of practice, indeed it fails many criteria for an online community. It is perhaps best conceived as a loose knit network of practice, valued for information, implicit support and for the maintenance of weak ties. Through the analysis the case for using strict definitions of the theoretical concepts is made

Mallards and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Ancestral Viruses, Northern Europe

Surveillance studies in wild birds help generate prototypic vaccine candidates and diagnostic tests

The Timing, the Treatment, the Question: Comparison of Epidemiologic Approaches to Minimize Immortal Time Bias in Real-World Data Using a Surgical Oncology Example

Background: Studies evaluating the effects of cancer treatments are prone to immortal time bias that, if unaddressed, can lead to treatments appearing more beneficial than they are. Methods: To demonstrate the impact of immortal time bias, we compared results across several analytic approaches (dichotomous exposure, dichotomous exposure excluding immortal time, time-varying exposure, landmark analysis, clone-censor-weight method), using surgical resection among women with metastatic breast cancer as an example. All adult women diagnosed with incident metastatic breast cancer from 2013–2016 in the National Cancer Database were included. To quantify immortal time bias, we also conducted a simulation study where the “true” relationship between surgical resection and mortality was known. Results: 24,329 women (median age 61, IQR 51–71) were included, and 24% underwent surgical resection. The largest association between resection and mortality was observed when using a dichotomized exposure [HR, 0.54; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.51–0.57], followed by dichotomous with exclusion of immortal time (HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.59–0.65). Results from the time-varying exposure, landmark, and clone-censor-weight method analyses were closer to the null (HR, 0.67–0.84). Results from the plasmode simulation found that the time-varying exposure, landmark, and clone-censor-weight method models all produced unbiased HRs (bias -0.003 to 0.016). Both standard dichotomous exposure (HR, 0.84; bias, -0.177) and dichotomous with exclusion of immortal time (HR, 0.93; bias, -0.074) produced meaningfully biased estimates. Conclusions: Researchers should use time-varying exposures with a treatment assessment window or the clone-censor-weight method when immortal time is present. Impact: Using methods that appropriately account for immortal time will improve evidence and decision-making from research using real-world data

An Outcome Evaluation of the Implementation of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program in Hong Kong

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) with a sample of Chinese parents of children with early onset conduct related problems in Hong Kong. The participants consisted of 91 parents whose children attended maternal and child health centers and child assessment centers for service, and were between three to seven years old. Participants were randomly assigned to the intervention (TP) and a waitlist control group (WL. There was no significant difference in pre-intervention measures between the two groups. However, at post intervention, participants in the TP group reported significantly lower levels of child behavior problems, lower dysfunctional parenting styles, and higher parent sense of competence, compared to the WL group. Implications of these findings for the use of Triple P with families of Chinese descent are discussed

Search for Λc+→pK+π−\Lambda_c^+ \to p K^+ \pi^- and Ds+→K+K+π−D_s^+ \to K^+ K^+ \pi^- Using Genetic Programming Event Selection

We apply a genetic programming technique to search for the double Cabibbo suppressed decays $\Lambda_c^+ \to p K^+ \pi^-$ and $D_s^+ \to K^+ K^+ \pi^-$. We normalize these decays to their Cabibbo favored partners and find $\text{BR}($\Lambda_c^+ \to p K^+ \pi^-$)/\text{BR}($\Lambda_c^+ \to p K^- \pi^+$) = (0.05 \pm 0.26 \pm 0.02)$ and $\text{BR}($D_s^+ \to K^+ K^+ \pi^-$)/\text{BR}($D_s^+ \to K^+ K^- \pi^+$) = (0.52\pm 0.17\pm 0.11)$ where the first errors are statistical and the second are systematic. Expressed as 90% confidence levels (CL), we find $< 0.46$ and $< 0.78$ respectively. This is the first successful use of genetic programming in a high energy physics data analysis.Comment: 10 page

Measurement of the D+ and Ds+ decays into K+K-K+

We present the first clear observation of the doubly Cabibbo suppressed decay D+ --> K-K+K+ and the first observation of the singly Cabibbo suppressed decay Ds+ --> K-K+K+. These signals have been obtained by analyzing the high statistics sample of photoproduced charm particles of the FOCUS(E831) experiment at Fermilab. We measure the following relative branching ratios: Gamma(D+ --> K-K+K+)/Gamma(D+ --> K-pi+pi+) = (9.49 +/- 2.17(statistical) +/- 0.22(systematic))x10^-4 and Gamma(Ds+ --> K-K+K+)/Gamma(Ds+ --> K-K+pi+) = (8.95 +/- 2.12(statistical) +2.24(syst.) -2.31(syst.))x10^-3.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figure