Special Education 2000 : the implementation experience : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Policy at Massey University

Since 1877 the state has provided free, secular and compulsory education for most of the children of school age in New Zealand. In 1989 legislation was passed that gave the right to enrol and attend at the local school to all children. For more than one hundred years children with disabilities and special educational needs were supported in a piecemeal fashion. The influences and practices from the medical discourse often dominated their education and services when they were available. With the passage into law of a right to an education in the mainstream for all children the state accepted the responsibility for the full range of students with special educational needs. At the same time as passing into law the opportunities for these children the Fourth Labour Government was initiating major reforms in education administration. The Education Act 1989 made provision for the governance of schools by locally elected Boards of Trustees. In 1995 after a hiatus with no special education policy for an interval of almost six years the policy Special Education 2000 was announced. This policy programme was to complete the work of education reform commenced under Tomorrow's Schools. The feature of this was to be the shift in responsibility for the education of students with special educational needs from the Ministry of Education to local school Boards of Trustees. This study examines the experiences of a small group of stakeholders as they implement the policies of Special Education 2000. Four secondary school principals participated in interviews that complemented policy analysis as part of this study .The outcomes of implementation varied for the participants. For two of them the policies appeared to offer continuity and opportunity to extend school services for students with high and very high special educational needs. For the other two this was not the case and a redirection or cessation of services appeared to be the outcome of the new policies. The findings of this study pinpoint the issues arising from the selection of policy instruments to implement and achieve policy goals, difficulties are identified due to a mismatch between the two

Draught Animal Systems and Management: An Indonesian Study

Livestock Production/Industries,

The mechanosensitive ion channel TRAAK is localized to the mammalian node of Ranvier.

TRAAK is a membrane tension-activated K+ channel that has been associated through behavioral studies to mechanical nociception. We used specific monoclonal antibodies in mice to show that TRAAK is localized exclusively to nodes of Ranvier, the action potential propagating elements of myelinated nerve fibers. Approximately 80 percent of myelinated nerve fibers throughout the central and peripheral nervous system contain TRAAK in what is likely an all-nodes or no-nodes per axon fashion. TRAAK is not observed at the axon initial segment where action potentials are first generated. We used polyclonal antibodies, the TRAAK inhibitor RU2 and node clamp amplifiers to demonstrate the presence and functional properties of TRAAK in rat nerve fibers. TRAAK contributes to the leak K+ current in mammalian nerve fiber conduction by hyperpolarizing the resting membrane potential, thereby increasing Na+ channel availability for action potential propagation. We speculate on why nodes of Ranvier contain a mechanosensitive K+ channel

Nuclear localisation of calreticulin in vivo is enhanced by its interaction with glucocorticoid receptors

AbstractThe multi-functional protein calreticulin (CRT) is normally found within the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). However, some of its proposed functions require it to be located within the nucleus, where its presence is contentious. We have investigated this in live COS7, HeLa and LM(TK−) cells using green fluorescent protein (GFP)-fusion proteins. GFP-CRT, and GFP, with an ER signal peptide and a KDEL sequence (ER-GFP), were localised to the ER. In addition, GFP-CRT was located in the nucleus of all the cell types at low levels. The higher levels of nuclear fluorescence in LM(TK−) and HeLa cells suggested that glucocorticoid receptors might enhance nuclear localisation of calreticulin. Dexamethasone treatment of LM(TK−) cells doubled the amount of nuclear GFP-CRT, but did not affect the localisation of a GFP-CRT fusion in which the glucocorticoid receptor-binding N-domain of calreticulin had been deleted. Thus, despite ER targeting and retention signals, calreticulin is also located within the nucleus where its presence increases due to its interaction with glucocorticoid receptors.© 1997 Federation of European Biochemical Societies

Early Paleozoic post-breakup magmatism along the Cordilleran margin of western North America: new geochronological and geochemical results from the Kechika Group, Yukon, Canada

Lower Paleozoic igneous rocks were emplaced along the Cordilleran margin of western North America following lithospheric breakup. Several competing rift models have been proposed to explain the significance of this magmatism to Cordilleran passive margin evolution. New field and laboratory studies of the Kechika group, south-central Yukon, were conducted to test these rift models and constrain the timing and tectonic setting of postbreakup magmatism. The Kechika group contains vent-proximal and sediment-sill facies that developed outboard of continental margin shelf and trough basins. Zircon U-Pb dates indicate that Kechika group rocks crystallized during the late Cambrian (488-483 Ma) and Early Ordovician (473 Ma). Whole-rock trace element and Nd-Hf isotope results are consistent with the low-degree partial melting of a lithospheric mantle source during margin-scale extension. Post-breakup rocks emplaced along the magma-poor North Atlantic margins, including the Orphan Knoll and Galicia Bank crustal blocks, are likely modern analogues for the Kechika group

The accuracy of Bloemfontein-based Emergency Medical Services providers in recognising sepsis

Background: Sepsis is considered a severe life-threatening medical emergency and globally carries a high mortality. Research suggests early recognition of sepsis can lead to early initiation of treatment and effective communication of this condition to the receiving facility by pre-hospital emergency care (PEC) providers. Depending on system operations, this has been shown to improve patient outcomes. However, sepsis often presents non-specifically, and in the absence of validated pre-hospital sepsis screening tools, less than half of sepsis patients seen by PEC providers are recognised. This study aimed to determine the accuracy with which Bloemfontein-based PEC providers recognise sepsis in a series of patient vignettes. Methods: A series of seven case vignettes were presented to a convenient sample of advanced life support (ALS) and intermediate life support (ILS) PEC providers. The PEC providers were asked to review each vignette and indicate whether the patient described had sepsis or not. The vignettes consisted of a clinical case description with signs and symptoms of patients presenting with or without sepsis, and images were shown where relevant. Elements of the Robson Prehospital Severe Sepsis Screening (RPSS) tool were used to populate the sepsis vignettes. Results: A total of 27 ILS and ALS PEC providers in the Bloemfontein area partook in the research study. Thus, a total of 189 vignettes were evaluated for sepsis. PEC providers, both ILS and ALS, recognised sepsis with a sensitivity of 69.63% and a specificity of 37.04% (PPV 73.44%, NPV 32.79%), indicating an accuracy of 60.32%. Although all participants mentioned some motivations for their answers, none of the participants gave specific cut-off value ranges at which point they would suspect sepsis. Conclusion: This vignette-based study found that PEC providers can recognise sepsis with modest accuracy, echoing previous work on this topic. In addition, the study provides a platform for similar studies, which, in turn, could aid in the development of a validated, pre-hospital sepsis screening tool.&nbsp

Downs, Stokes and the Dynamics of Electoral Choice

A six-wave 2005–09 national panel survey conducted in conjunction with the British Election Study provided data for an investigation of sources of stability and change in voters’ party preferences. The authors test competing spatial and valence theories of party choice and investigate the hypothesis that spatial calculations provide cues for making valence judgements. Analyses reveal that valence mechanisms – heuristics based on party leader images, party performance evaluations and mutable partisan attachments – outperform a spatial model in terms of strength of direct effects on party choice. However, spatial effects still have sizeable indirect effects on the vote via their influence on valence judgements. The results of exogeneity tests bolster claims about the flow of influence from spatial calculations to valence judgments to electoral choice.</jats:p

Efficacy of temsirolimus in metastatic chromophobe renal cell carcinoma

&lt;p&gt;Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a histopathologically and molecularly heterogeneous disease with the chromophobe subtype (chRCC) accounting for approximately 5% of all cases. The median overall survival of advanced RCC has improved significantly since the advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors. However, high-quality evidence for the use of new generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors in patients with advanced chRCC is lacking. Few published case reports have highlighted the use of temsirolimus in chRCC.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Case presentation: Here, we report the case of a 36-year-old Caucasian woman with metastatic chRCC with predominantly skeletal metastases who was refractory to sunitinib who demonstrated a durable clinical response to temsirolimus lasting 20 months. We review the available evidence pertaining to the use of new generation molecularly targeted agents, in particular mTOR inhibitors in chRCC and discuss their emerging role in the management of this disease which would aid the oncologists faced with the challenge of treating this rare type of RCC.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Conclusion: Conducting randomised clinical trials in this rarer sub-group of patients would be challenging and our case report and the evidence reviewed would guide the physicians to make informed decision regarding the management of these patients.&lt;/p&gt