Retinopathy in diabetic patients evaluated at a primary care clinic in Cape Town

Please cite as follows: Read, O. & Cook, C. 2007. Retinopathy in diabetic patients evaluated at a primary care clinic in Cape Town. South African Medical Journal, 97(10):941-945.The original publication is available at http://www.samj.org.zaDiabetic retinopathy is the fifth leading cause of global blindness, affecting an estimated 1.8 billion people and responsible for 4.8% of blindness.1 In South Africa, it is the third leading cause of blindness after cataract and glaucoma, and is responsible for 5% of blindness (0.04% of the total population). Cataract and refractive error are prioritised for the first phase of Vision 2020 in South Africa, while strategies to deal with diabetic retinopathy are recommended as a priority for the second phase.2 These strategies will include provision of adequate screening and argon laser treatment. The prevalence of diabetes differs in different population groups in South Africa. Among black and coloured South Africans, diabetes has risen from 3% to 12% over the past 10 years. Overall, the prevalence is conservatively estimated to be 3 - 5% (30 000 - 50 000 per million population).2 The prevalence of retinopathy in people with diabetes is estimated to be 20% (6 000 - 10 000 per million population), and the prevalence of blindness among these is estimated to be 5% (300 - 500 blind per million population).2 The objective of this study was to evaluate the retinopathy status of patients with diabetes seen at a primary care clinic in Cape Town and to assess the adequacy of the current diabetic screening programmes.Publishers versio

The development of children’s autobiographical and deliberate memory through mother-child reminiscing

Children’s use of strategic techniques for remembering and the effectiveness of these deliberate strategies both improve across elementary school. However, developmental scientists are still in the early stages of exploring the course of development within individual children as well as the social processes that may influence this development. In a parallel literature, research on children’s autobiographical memory has documented variations in children’s memory skills as a function of parental elaborative style during shared conversations about the past, or mother-child reminiscing. This linkage suggests that perhaps something about this reminiscing context may also be important for the development of strategic memory skills. The current study allows for the examination of associations between children’s deliberate memory and autobiographical memory as well as how both types of memory may be scaffolded by mother-child reminiscing. Using data from the first cohort of an ongoing study about children’s memory, correlational analyses were conducted between kindergarten children’s autobiographical memory and their deliberate strategy use and recall. Hierarchical linear regression models were used to predict these child outcomes from parents’ observed elaborative reminiscing style. Results supported the connection between children’s deliberate strategy use and recall as well as the association between parents’ elaborative style and children’s autobiographical memory. Interestingly, parents’ elaborative style did not predict children’s spontaneous strategy use, but rather their use of an organizational strategy after explicit training, suggesting that parents’ style is related to children’s ability to take advantage of instruction in a specific memory strategy. These findings provide valuable insight into the socialization of cognition, but also raise important questions about the role of parental processes in specific aspects of children’s memory development

Application of the ecosystem functions framework to community woodlands

The UK government provides financial incentives to land owners who promote community use of newly-planted woodlands. De Groot et al. (2002) have developed a framework for classifying ecosystem functions. This research applies this framework to identify and describe perceptions of the function, use and value of community woodlands in order to inform local management and government policy. The research was an exploratory and descriptive case study with an initial flexible and final fixed stage. A poplar wood (Pegnut Wood) and two mixed-broadleaf woodlands(Clapham Park Wood and Reynolds Wood), all planted in Bedfordshire between 1993 and 1998, provided the case studies. Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews, self-administered structured questionnaires, direct observation, modelling of tree data and review of secondary documents. In total 172 out of 400 local residents, 20 on-site visitors, and 8 other stakeholders (owners, government institutions and conservation groups) gave responses. The primary motivations of the owners for establishing the woods were production, information and habitat functions. However financial cost-benefit analyses indicated negative returns to owners without government grants. In the first set of interviews 43- 58% of the local respondents at each site described the selected woods and community woods as “very important”. There was a significant positive association between nearness to the woods and level of importance. Those who visited the woods placed greatest emphasis on the use of the woods for exercise and recreation (48-64%), and as a wildlife habitat (50-52%). Using the ecosystem function framework, local respondents at Pegnut Wood and Clapham Park Wood placed greatest value on habitat (29-39%) and information functions (33-38%) and lowest value on regulation (14-19%), production (5-8%) and negative functions (7-8%). Respondents at Reynolds Wood placed the greatest relative importance on negative functions (36%). Across the three sites, local respondents placed the greatest relative value on the use of the woodlands as a habitat for wild plants and animals (14%) and to provide landscape beauty (12%). A second set of interviews, focussed on the recreational use of the woodlands, showed that the main purpose for visiting the woods was walking (median frequency of once a month and duration of between 31-60 minutes). Fifteen out of 88 respondents indicated that they were willing to contribute to support the woods. Many of those not in favour felt such support was a government responsibility. Overall, owners, local residents, government and local conservation groups showed similar relative valuations of the different functions and uses of community woodlands, indicating that there was substantial scope for working together. The research showed that it was useful to apply the ecosystem functions framework to community woodlands. It provided a structure for analysing planting objectives and it encouraged a focus on indirect uses. Stakeholders recognised potential negative functions of the woodland, and it proved useful to include these in the framework. We note the challenges in recognising and placing a high value on the regulation function amongst the range of stakeholders. The framework also helped to identify synergies and tensions between stakeholders without the need for monetising values.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Grizzly, March 26, 2015

More Efficient Wi-Fi Coming Soon • Organic Farm Preps for Spring Season With Purchase of New Bee Hives, Crops • Two Students Win Watson Fellowship • Myrin Renovations Aim to Meet Study Needs • Puttin\u27 on the Ritz • Airband Judging Changes • Museum Studies Minor Approved by Council • Opinion: The Sexist Nature of March Madness; Wellness Center Waits are Too Long • Softball Squad Starts Steady • Re-lax, Don\u27t Sweat Ithttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1928/thumbnail.jp

The Grizzly, October 30, 2014

Board Announces National Search for New President • Residents Relocated After Fire • Clubs Host First Ever Festifall • Yik Yak Exposes Use of Fake IDs • Midterm Elections Approaching • Halloween Compared to Other International Holidays • UC Alumni Return • Viewers are Drawn to Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville • Student Interns at Disney World • Opinion: Must Halloween Costumes for Women be Sexy?; Occupy Movement in Hong Kong Persists • Local Athlete Stong Giving Field Hockey a Scoring Spark • Diving Into 2014-15 Slate • Seri-ously Goodhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1914/thumbnail.jp

Effects of home-, school-, and individual-level factors on children’s deliberate memory development in elementary school

Children enter kindergarten with a variety of experiences and skills. In this transition to formal school, they are expected to adapt quickly to new demands such as remembering specific pieces of information, knowing when to retrieve this information, and understanding how to use this information to complete specific tasks. These skills have been referred to as children’s deliberate memory skills and are thought to serve children’s long term academic success. However, limited research has focused on specific aspects of children’s everyday contexts that play a role in the development of these skills – such as adult-to-child language exchanges in home and school settings. Therefore, the goals of the current study were to (a) understand the role of children’s every day, lived experiences such as parent–child reminiscing and teacher–child linguistic exchanges (i.e., cognitive processing language in classrooms) on the initial acquisition and sustained use of mnemonic strategies across the kindergarten and first-grade years, and (b) describe the interplay between individual-level factors – such as other components of children’s cognition – and these adult-to-child scaffolding practices on children’s memory development. Drawing on a sample of 79 children nested in 10 kindergarten classrooms, children’s deliberate memory skills were assessed at 6 timepoints from kindergarten entry to the end of first grade. Kindergarten teachers’ instruction was recorded using GoPro cameras during regular mathematics and language arts lessons; these recordings were subsequently coded for the prevalence use of cognitive processing language (Coffman et al., 2008; 2019). Parent–child dyads took part in a parent-child reminiscing task in which they were asked to reminisce about two recent events. Conversations were coded for parents’ elaborative reminiscing style (Reese et al., 1993; Langley et al., 2017). Finally, children’s executive function and self-regulation skills were assessed during the kindergarten year using the Dimensional Change Card Sort Task (Zelazo, 2006) and the Head Toes Knees Shoulders Task, (Ponitz et al., 2009; McClelland et al., 2014) respectively. Results from a series of growth curve models using a multilevel modeling framework revealed significant predictors of children’s deliberate memory skills at the start of kindergarten and at the end of first grade, as well as of the rate at which changes in these skills occurred as a function of home-, school-, and individual-level factors. First, although children of parents with high levels of elaborative reminiscing entered kindergarten with higher levels of deliberate memory skills, it was children who had parents who used lower levels of elaborative reminiscing who developed more rapidly over the course of the kindergarten and first grade years. Second, children who were exposed to teachers who used higher levels of cognitive processing language (CPL) in kindergarten developed strategic sorting skills more rapidly over the course of first grade and ended the year with higher levels of deliberate strategy use than their peers who were exposed to lower levels of cognitive processing language. Finally, for children with lower self-regulation skills, those exposed to higher levels of CPL in kindergarten evidenced higher levels of deliberate strategy use at the end of first grade than their peers who were exposed to lower levels of CPL. Taken together, these findings provide insight to the role of parent-child and teacher-child processes on the development of children’s deliberate memory skills during the first two years of elementary school. Strengths, limitations, and future directions for researchers and educators are discussed

Packer Avenue Promenade Project: Sustainability Impact Assessment

Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) is a process for assessing the economic, social and environmental impacts of policies and projects based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. SIA expands public participation in the assessment process and the scope of environmental impacts included in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). An emphasis on quality of life outcomes in SIA requires the use of subjective metrics in addition to objective analyses typical of EIA. This SIA assesses the proposed closing of Packer Avenue to vehicular traffic in order to make a pedestrian walkway at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA. The authors analyzed potential positive and negative impacts with regard to local business and the arts, sense of place, the natural environment, traffic and transportation, pedestrian mobility, exposure to pollutants, and safety and emergency access. Assessment methods included interviews with experts and stakeholders, public surveys, systematic behavioral observation, and review of published research. This document includes recommendations to maximize the positive impacts and mitigate negative impacts of the proposed project