Teachers' views on the introduction and implementation of literacy tasks in the Year 7 Science scheme of learning

The importance of literacy has continued since the publication of the Bullock Report in 1975 (Bullock, 1975) where schools are recommended to have a coherent approach for the effective teaching of reading and writing. Yet the Rose Report (Rose, 2006) found 16% of 11 year olds did not reach level 4 in reading at Key Stage 2. This case study looks at teacher views on the implementation of a literacy focus in the Year 7 Science scheme of learning within one school. The school is a mixed comprehensive located in a large town within Cambridgeshire with 1197 students on roll. The school has seen a local increase in the number of students with low literacy levels, level 3 or below at Key Stage 2 (KS 2). Within the cohort entering the school in September 2011, 188 students in total, 31.9% were judged by their KS2 tests to be level 3 or below in English. A mixed method approach was applied with document analysis of the Earth and Space scheme of learning to ensure tasks were embedded and a staff questionnaire was administered to gauge their views on the effectiveness of the strategies used, including the embedding of these within the scheme. Overall, teachers believe literacy is important in the teaching of science and that specific activities designed to develop literacy can also be useful in aiding scientific understanding. The designed curriculum was found to contain a literacy focus but with an emphasis on key words and discussion. Several other literacy strategies were absent from the scheme bringing to the fore the struggle between teaching science and teaching literacy

Personal qualities of the clinical psychologist

The person within the Clinical Psychologist is not often addressed in Clinical Psychology. The aim of this study as a whole was to consider the person who practices as a therapist and question why as a whole the profession does not acknowledge the more personable aspects of the profession. The literature review (chapter one) looked at the development of Clinical Psychology in the United Kingdom. It illustrated how economic trends and the predominance of the medical model have affected Clinical Psychology practice and training in this country. The review suggests that the more personable aspects of therapy and empirical research are not given their due credence because of the overarching arm of the medical model and it's "specificity" mentality. The first study (chapter two) looked at psychological mindedness (PM) in therapists; something deemed to be almost inherent in this population. The study aimed to gain empirical evidence that PM is associated with adaptive therapist attributes. Correlational analysis revealed significant positive associations between PM and clinician empathy, self understanding and the therapeutic relationship. The second study (chapter three) was concerned specifically with personal therapy in qualified therapists. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of responses to questionnaires revealed personal and professional benefits of engaging in personal therapy. The study also hypothesised that the small response rate evident in this study highlighted the long standing reluctance of psychotherapists in this country to discuss personal experiences of therapy, a concern and matter for further research. Finally the research review (chapter four) considers how I now value the people as paramount in the therapy room rather than the diagnosis. The process which facilitated this change in me is documented and reflected upon

Personal qualities of the clinical psychologist

The person within the Clinical Psychologist is not often addressed in Clinical Psychology. The aim of this study as a whole was to consider the person who practices as a therapist and question why as a whole the profession does not acknowledge the more personable aspects of the profession. The literature review (chapter one) looked at the development of Clinical Psychology in the United Kingdom. It illustrated how economic trends and the predominance of the medical model have affected Clinical Psychology practice and training in this country. The review suggests that the more personable aspects of therapy and empirical research are not given their due credence because of the overarching arm of the medical model and it's "specificity" mentality. The first study (chapter two) looked at psychological mindedness (PM) in therapists; something deemed to be almost inherent in this population. The study aimed to gain empirical evidence that PM is associated with adaptive therapist attributes. Correlational analysis revealed significant positive associations between PM and clinician empathy, self understanding and the therapeutic relationship. The second study (chapter three) was concerned specifically with personal therapy in qualified therapists. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of responses to questionnaires revealed personal and professional benefits of engaging in personal therapy. The study also hypothesised that the small response rate evident in this study highlighted the long standing reluctance of psychotherapists in this country to discuss personal experiences of therapy, a concern and matter for further research. Finally the research review (chapter four) considers how I now value the people as paramount in the therapy room rather than the diagnosis. The process which facilitated this change in me is documented and reflected upon.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Libyan HIV Outbreak How do we find the truth?

In reply to The coresspondence article "Libyan J Med, AOP: 070219 (published 22 February 2007). The article The Case of the Libyan HIV-1 Outbreak: Libyan J Med, AOP: 070201 (published 3 February 2007

On Eight

This book was completed for Jan Baker\u27s artists\u27 book class.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/specialcollections_bookmark_letters/1006/thumbnail.jp

User-centered development of a Virtual Research Environment to support collaborative research events

This paper discusses the user-centred development process within the Collaborative Research Events on the Web (CREW) project, funded under the JISC Virtual Research Environments (VRE) programme. After presenting the project, its aims and the functionality of the CREW VRE, we focus on the user engagement approach, grounded in the method of co-realisation. We describe the different research settings and requirements of our three embedded user groups and the respective activities conducted so far. Finally we elaborate on the main challenges of our user engagement approach and end with the project’s next steps

Livelihood responses to Lantana camara invasion and biodiversity change in southern India: application of an asset function framework

Natural resources play key roles as assets in the livelihoods of rural communities. However, the benefits of these assets in livelihoods are frequently conceived narrowly as income generating or vulnerability reducing. We contend that they have other important roles to play in poverty reduction and livelihood change. In this paper we use a case study of two ethnic communities in a village in southern India to investigate livelihood responses to change in forest biodiversity through an examination of changes in attributes of natural assets resulting from the invasion of Lantana camara and wider socio-economic change. The invasion of forest by Lantana has contributed to changes in the attributes and functions of four key natural assets: forest grazing, bamboo for basketry, Phoenix loureie for brooms, and wild yams. We observe that differences in households’ and individuals’ ability to substitute important functions of lost or declining assets affect their ability to adapt to changes in resource availability and attributes. Analysing changes in asset attributes for different user groups allows the social effects of environmental change to be disaggregated

Height at diagnosis and birth-weight as risk factors for osteosarcoma

OBJECTIVES: Osteosarcoma typically occurs during puberty. Studies of the association between height and/or birth-weight and osteosarcoma are conflicting. Therefore, we conducted a large pooled analysis of height and birth-weight in osteosarcoma. METHODS: Patient data from seven studies of height and three of birth-weight were obtained, resulting in 1,067 cases with height and 434 cases with birth-weight data. We compared cases to the 2000 US National Center for Health Statistics Growth Charts by simulating 1,000 age- and gender-matched controls per case. Adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for associations between height or birth-weight and risk of osteosarcoma for each study were estimated using logistic regression. All of the case data were combined for an aggregate analysis. RESULTS: Compared to average birth-weight subjects (2,665-4,045 g), individuals with high birth-weight (≥ 4,046 g) had an increased osteosarcoma risk (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.01-1.79). Taller than average (51st - 89th percentile) and very tall individuals (≥ 90th percentile) had an increased risk of osteosarcoma (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.18-1.54 and OR 2.60, 95% CI 2.19-3.07, respectively; P (trend) < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest analysis of height at diagnosis and birth-weight in relation to osteosarcoma. It suggests that rapid bone growth during puberty and in utero contributes to OS etiology

A genome-wide association study for late-onset Alzheimer's disease using DNA pooling

Background: Late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) is an age related neurodegenerative disease with a high prevalence that places major demands on healthcare resources in societies with increasingly aged populations. The only extensively replicable genetic risk factor for LOAD is the apolipoprotein E gene. In order to identify additional genetic risk loci we have conducted a genome-wide association (GWA) study in a large LOAD case – control sample, reducing costs through the use of DNA pooling. Methods: DNA samples were collected from 1,082 individuals with LOAD and 1,239 control subjects. Age at onset ranged from 60 to 95 and Controls were matched for age (mean = 76.53 years, SD = 33), gender and ethnicity. Equimolar amounts of each DNA sample were added to either a case or control pool. The pools were genotyped using Illumina HumanHap300 and Illumina Sentrix HumanHap240S arrays testing 561,494 SNPs. 114 of our best hit SNPs from the pooling data were identified and then individually genotyped in the case – control sample used to construct the pools. Results: Highly significant association with LOAD was observed at the APOE locus confirming the validity of the pooled genotyping approach. For 109 SNPs outside the APOE locus, we obtained uncorrected p-values ≤ 0.05 for 74 after individual genotyping. To further test these associations, we added control data from 1400 subjects from the 1958 Birth Cohort with the evidence for association increasing to 3.4 × 10-6 for our strongest finding, rs727153. rs727153 lies 13 kb from the start of transcription of lecithin retinol acyltransferase (phosphatidylcholine – retinol O-acyltransferase, LRAT). Five of seven tag SNPs chosen to cover LRAT showed significant association with LOAD with a SNP in intron 2 of LRAT, showing greatest evidence of association (rs201825, p-value = 6.1 × 10-7). Conclusion: We have validated the pooling method for GWA studies by both identifying the APOE locus and by observing a strong enrichment for significantly associated SNPs. We provide evidence for LRAT as a novel candidate gene for LOAD. LRAT plays a prominent role in the Vitamin A cascade, a system that has been previously implicated in LOAD

Four ways blue foods can help achieve food system ambitions across nations

Blue foods, sourced in aquatic environments, are important for the economies, livelihoods, nutritional security and cultures of people in many nations. They are often nutrient rich, generate lower emissions and impacts on land and water than many terrestrial meats, and contribute to the health, wellbeing and livelihoods of many rural communities4. The Blue Food Assessment recently evaluated nutritional, environmental, economic and justice dimensions of blue foods globally. Here we integrate these findings and translate them into four policy objectives to help realize the contributions that blue foods can make to national food systems around the world: ensuring supplies of critical nutrients, providing healthy alternatives to terrestrial meat, reducing dietary environmental footprints and safeguarding blue food contributions to nutrition, just economies and livelihoods under a changing climate. To account for how context-specific environmental, socio-economic and cultural aspects affect this contribution, we assess the relevance of each policy objective for individual countries, and examine associated co-benefits and trade-offs at national and international scales. We find that in many African and South American nations, facilitating consumption of culturally relevant blue food, especially among nutritionally vulnerable population segments, could address vitamin B12 and omega-3 deficiencies. Meanwhile, in many global North nations, cardiovascular disease rates and large greenhouse gas footprints from ruminant meat intake could be lowered through moderate consumption of seafood with low environmental impact. The analytical framework we provide also identifies countries with high future risk, for whom climate adaptation of blue food systems will be particularly important. Overall the framework helps decision makers to assess the blue food policy objectives most relevant to their geographies, and to compare and contrast the benefits and trade-offs associated with pursuing these objectives