Early Childhood Supervision: Tensions in the Advancement of Developmentally Appropriate and Social-Justice Oriented Practice

This case examines the complex interactions among university faculty, teacher candidates, and school-based mentor teachers during supervision. In early childhood, among other skills and dispositions, the use of developmentally appropriate practice and an equity focus are important to the overall advancement of teacher candidates’ practice. However, supervisors do not have oversight of the classrooms in which early childhood candidates are placed for field experiences. In some cases, teacher candidates may be expected to conform to or demonstrate practices themselves which are not developmentally appropriate, or which are inequitable. What is the role of the supervising faculty member in these cases, and how can the supervisor navigate the relationship with mentor teacher and host school, while also supporting appropriate and equitable professional growth in the teacher candidate

Taking balance measurement out of the laboratory and into the home: discriminatory capability of novel centre of pressure measurement in fallers and non-fallers

We investigated three methods for estimating centre of pressure excursions, as measured using a portable pressure sensor matrix, in order to deploy similar technology into the homes of older adults for longitudinal monitoring of postural control and falls risk. We explored the utility of these three methods as markers of falls risk in a cohort of 120 community dwelling older adults with and without a history of falls (65 fallers, 55 non-fallers). A number of standard quantitative balance parameters were derived using each centre of pressure estimation method. Rank sum tests were used to test for significant differences between fallers and non-fallers while intra-class correlation coefficients were also calculated to determine the reliability of each method. A method based on estimating the changes in the magnitude of pressure exerted on the pressure sensor matrix was found to be the most reliable and discriminative. Our future work will implement this method for home-based balance measurement

Parallel or intersecting lines? Intelligent bibliometrics for investigating the involvement of data science in policy analysis

Efforts to involve data science in policy analysis can be traced back decades but transforming analytic findings into decisions is still far from straightforward task. Data-driven decision-making requires understanding approaches, practices, and research results from many disciplines, which makes it interesting to investigate whether data science and policy analysis are moving in parallel or whether their pathways have intersected. Our investigation, from a bibliometric perspective, is driven by a comprehensive set of research questions, and we have designed an intelligent bibliometric framework that includes a series of traditional bibliometric approaches and a novel method of charting the evolutionary pathways of scientific innovation, which is used to identify predecessor–descendant relationships in technological topics. Our investigation reveals that data science and policy analysis have intersecting lines, and it can foresee that a cross-disciplinary direction in which policy analysis interacting with data science has become an emergent area in both communities. However, equipped with advanced data analytic techniques, data scientists are moving faster and further than policy analysts. The empirical insights derived from our research should be beneficial to academic researchers and journal editors in related research communities, as well as policy-makers in research institutions and funding agencies

Over-the-counter orlistat: early experiences, views and attitudes of community pharmacists in Great Britain.

Objectives of the study To describe community pharmacists early experiences, views and attitudes with over-the-counter orlistat, 9 months post legal re-classification from November 2009 to January 2010. Setting 13,200 (81%) randomly selected registered community pharmacies across Great Britain out of a potential 16,200. Methods A cross-sectional postal questionnaire survey of the main pharmacist with greatest responsibility for over-the-counter (OTC) supply. Main outcome measures Pharmacists early experiences, views and attitudes of orlistat supply, demographic data of respondents and personal opinions with the supply of orlistat. Results Questionnaires were returned by 32.4% (n = 4,026) of pharmacists surveyed. Just over half (51.9%, n = 2,091) reported no sales of orlistat in the previous 4 weeks with only 5.1% (n = 203) reporting frequent (5.1%) or very frequent supply in the same time frame. Two thirds (66.5%, n = 2,676) agreed or strongly agreed that the sale of orlistat was a good opportunity to extend their role as a healthcare professional and 92% (n = 3,712) felt confident in their ability to supply this product. Over half (57.9%, n = 2,334) admitted that customers frequently complained about the cost of the product and 47.8% (n = 1,926) agreed that customers could misuse the product. Conclusion Despite community pharmacists welcoming orlistat re-classification to increase medicines availability as an opportunity to extend their healthcare professional role there were concerns about poor public uptake, high cost and the potential for misuse. Exploratory studies collecting the views and experiences of the general public about the access and provision of weight management services through community pharmacies are warranted

Experimental Lagos bat virus infection in straw-colored fruit bats: A suitable model for bat rabies in a natural reservoir species.

Rabies is a fatal neurologic disease caused by lyssavirus infection. Bats are important natural reservoir hosts of various lyssaviruses that can be transmitted to people. The epidemiology and pathogenesis of rabies in bats are poorly understood, making it difficult to prevent zoonotic transmission. To further our understanding of lyssavirus pathogenesis in a natural bat host, an experimental model using straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) and Lagos bat virus, an endemic lyssavirus in this species, was developed. To determine the lowest viral dose resulting in 100% productive infection, bats in five groups (four bats per group) were inoculated intramuscularly with one of five doses, ranging from 100.1 to 104.1 median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50). More bats died due to the development of rabies after the middle dose (102.1 TCID50, 4/4 bats) than after lower (101.1, 2/4; 101.1, 2/4) or higher (103.1, 2/4; 104.1, 2/4) doses of virus. In the two highest dose groups, 4/8 bats developed rabies. Of those bats that remained healthy 3/4 bats seroconverted, suggesting that high antigen loads can trigger a strong immune response that abrogates a productive infection. In contrast, in the two lowest dose groups, 3/8 bats developed rabies, 1/8 remained healthy and seroconverted and 4/8 bats remained healthy and did not seroconvert, suggesting these doses are too low to reliably induce infection. The main lesion in all clinically affected bats was meningoencephalitis associated with lyssavirus-positive neurons. Lyssavirus antigen was detected in tongue epithelium (5/11 infected bats) rather than in salivary gland epithelium (0/11), suggesting viral excretion via the tongue. Thus, intramuscular inoculation of 102.1 TCID50 of Lagos bat virus into straw-colored fruit bats is a suitable model for lyssavirus associated bat rabies in a natural reservoir host, and can help with the investigation of lyssavirus infection dynamics in bats

De novo mutations in SMCHD1 cause Bosma arhinia microphthalmia syndrome and abrogate nasal development

Bosma arhinia microphthalmia syndrome (BAMS) is an extremely rare and striking condition characterized by complete absence of the nose with or without ocular defects. We report here that missense mutations in the epigenetic regulator SMCHD1 mapping to the extended ATPase domain of the encoded protein cause BAMS in all 14 cases studied. All mutations were de novo where parental DNA was available. Biochemical tests and in vivo assays in Xenopus laevis embryos suggest that these mutations may behave as gain-of-function alleles. This finding is in contrast to the loss-of-function mutations in SMCHD1 that have been associated with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD) type 2. Our results establish SMCHD1 as a key player in nasal development and provide biochemical insight into its enzymatic function that may be exploited for development of therapeutics for FSHD

Community Health Environment Scan Survey (CHESS): a novel tool that captures the impact of the built environment on lifestyle factors

Background: Novel1 1This study was performed on behalf of the Community Interventions for Health (CIH) collaboration. efforts and accompanying tools are needed to tackle the global burden of chronic disease. This paper presents an approach to describe the environments in which people live, work, and play. Community Health Environment Scan Survey (CHESS) is an empirical assessment tool that measures the availability and accessibility, of healthy lifestyle options lifestyle options. CHESS reveals existing community assets as well as opportunities for change, shaping community intervention planning efforts by focusing on community-relevant opportunities to address the three key risk factors for chronic disease (i.e. unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and tobacco use). Methods: The CHESS tool was developed following a review of existing auditing tools and in consultation with experts. It is based on the social-ecological model and is adaptable to diverse settings in developed and developing countries throughout the world. Results: For illustrative purposes, baseline results from the Community Interventions for Health (CIH) Mexico site are used, where the CHESS tool assessed 583 food stores and 168 restaurants. Comparisons between individual-level survey data from schools and community-level CHESS data are made to demonstrate the utility of the tool in strategically guiding intervention activities. Conclusion: The environments where people live, work, and play are key factors in determining their diet, levels of physical activity, and tobacco use. CHESS is the first tool of its kind that systematically and simultaneously examines how built environments encourage/discourage healthy eating, physical activity, and tobacco use. CHESS can help to design community interventions to prevent chronic disease and guide healthy urban planning

Pathogenesis of bat rabies in a natural reservoir: Comparative susceptibility of the straw-colored fruit bat (Eidolon helvum) to three strains of Lagos bat virus.

Rabies is a fatal neurologic disease caused by lyssavirus infection. People are infected through contact with infected animals. The relative increase of human rabies acquired from bats calls for a better understanding of lyssavirus infections in their natural hosts. So far, there is no experimental model that mimics natural lyssavirus infection in the reservoir bat species. Lagos bat virus is a lyssavirus that is endemic in straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) in Africa. Here we compared the susceptibility of these bats to three strains of Lagos bat virus (from Senegal, Nigeria, and Ghana) by intracranial inoculation. To allow comparison between strains, we ensured the same titer of virus was inoculated in the same location of the brain of each bat. All bats (n = 3 per strain) were infected, and developed neurological signs, and fatal meningoencephalitis with lyssavirus antigen expression in neurons. There were three main differences among the groups. First, time to death was substantially shorter in the Senegal and Ghana groups (4 to 6 days) than in the Nigeria group (8 days). Second, each virus strain produced a distinct clinical syndrome. Third, the spread of virus to peripheral tissues, tested by hemi-nested reverse transcriptase PCR, was frequent (3 of 3 bats) and widespread (8 to 10 tissues positive of 11 tissues examined) in the Ghana group, was frequent and less widespread in the Senegal group (3/3 bats, 3 to 6 tissues positive), and was rare and restricted in the Nigeria group (1/3 bats, 2 tissues positive). Centrifugal spread of virus from brain to tissue of excretion in the oral cavity is required to enable lyssavirus transmission. Therefore, the Senegal and Ghana strains seem most suitable for further pathogenesis, and for transmission, studies in the straw-colored fruit bat

Scaffold proteins LACK and TRACK as potential drug targets in kinetoplastid parasites: Development of inhibitors

Parasitic diseases cause similar to 500,000 deaths annually and remain a major challenge for therapeutic development. Using a rational design based approach, we developed peptide inhibitors with anti-parasitic activity that were derived from the sequences of parasite scaffold proteins LACK (Leishmania's receptor for activated C-kinase) and TRACK (Trypanosoma receptor for activated C-kinase). We hypothesized that sequences in LACK and TRACK that are conserved in the parasites, but not in the mammalian ortholog, RACK (Receptor for activated C-kinase), may be interaction sites for signaling proteins that are critical for the parasites' viability. One of these peptides exhibited leishmanicidal and trypanocidal activity in culture. Moreover, in infected mice, this peptide was also effective in reducing parasitemia and increasing survival without toxic effects. The identified peptide is a promising new anti-parasitic drug lead, as its unique features may limit toxicity and drug-resistance, thus overcoming central limitations of most anti-parasitic drugs. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Australian Society for Parasitology.National Institutes of HealthStanford Univ, Sch Med, Dept Chem & Syst Biol, Stanford, CA 94305 USAUniv Sao Paulo, Inst Quim, Dept Bioquim, BR-05508 Sao Paulo, SP, BrazilMcGill Univ, Res Inst, Natl Reference Ctr Parasitol, Montreal, PQ, CanadaUniv Autonoma Yucatan, Ctr Invest Reg Dr Hideyo Noguchi, Parasitol Lab, Merida, Yucatan, MexicoStanford Univ, Biomat & Adv Drug Delivery Lab, Stanford, CA 94305 USAUniv Estadual Campinas, Inst Chem, Campinas, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Ciencias Biol, Campus Diadema, Sao Paulo, BrazilMcGill Univ, Inst Parasitol, Quebec City, PQ, CanadaMcGill Univ, Ctr Host Parasite Interact, Quebec City, PQ, CanadaUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Dept Ciencias Biol, Campus Diadema, Sao Paulo, BrazilNIH: TW008781-01C-IDEANIH: AI078505Web of Scienc