"What if I get it wrong?" A psycho-social enquiry into SENCOs' experiences of learning, doing and teaching maths

This research applies a psycho-social approach to explore how SENCOs think about children with learning difficulties in mathematics, their feelings when performing mathematics tasks, and their own experiences of mathematics learning. Four SENCOs from different schools were interviewed twice. These participants were interviewed using a Free Association Narrative Interviewing (FANI) method, and were asked to complete a mathematics task. The mathematics task provided an experiential element through which participants communicated more unconscious or ‘unpolished’ feelings. This is a qualitative, exploratory piece of research. It comes from a psycho-social ontology, insofar as the participants are theorised in terms of psychoanalytic and societal concepts, and a psycho-social epistemology, in that knowledge of participants is gained through an interaction between a defended subject and researcher. As the researcher I understand people as psychologically defended against anxiety (Klein, 1952). Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis, while keeping in mind the ‘whole’ person. Thought was given to the researcher-participant relationship, to the narrative and to the ‘unspoken’ parts of the narrative which were interpreted using psychoanalytic frameworks. A reflective research diary and psycho-social supervision were used in order to enhance the understanding of the subjective researcher experience of dynamics underlying the interview process. A number of themes emerged from the data: Participants tended to attribute the causes of the children’s learning difficulties to within child difficulties or to teaching or parenting; participants’ negative feelings around mathematics were associated with rivalry, disempowerment and vulnerability, and shame at feeling unable to do something; the participants’ experiences of learning mathematics as a child appeared to have a profound effect on participants and how they approached mathematics tasks, and uncontaining school experiences of mathematics left a lasting impression. Limitations of the research and implications for teachers, SENCOs and EPs are discussed

EFRC Bulletin 81 December 2005

EFRC's regular Bulletin with updates from the Organic Advisory Servic

Maternal Mortality: Related to Obstetric Service Availability in Rural Settings versus Urban Settings

Maternal Mortality: Relationship of Obstetric Service Availability in Rural Settings versus Urban Settings Abstract Background: Women in rural areas continue to experience life-threatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth, despite advances in medicine and technology. Access to regular prenatal care and obstetric services during delivery are important aspects to a non-life-threatening delivery. We sought to further the knowledge and comprehension of the increasing maternal mortality rates linked to accessible obstetric services and rural versus urban locations. Methods: We conducted a systematic review by using EBSCO and PubMed databases and using search terms such as “maternal mortality or maternal deaths or pregnancy related deaths”, “rural areas or rural communities”, “urban areas or cities or urban communities.” We appraised various sources of evidence and compiled diverse findings. Results: The research yielded twelve articles that suggested a strong relationship between maternal mortality rates being higher in rural areas with less obstetric services than in urban areas with greater obstetric services. Conclusion: Women in rural areas lack access to prenatal care and obstetric services. Additionally, maternal mortality rates are higher in rural areas than urban areas. Improving access in rural communities will reduce disparities in care delivery and maternal outcomes for childbearing women. Keywords: maternal mortality, rural communities, urban communities, obstetric services, prenatal care, pregnanc

The Identification of Resident Bacteria and the Comparison of the Gut and Skin Microbiome in Bat Rays (Myliobatis californica)

Undergraduate Theoretical Proposa

Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment Data Simulator

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is a 6U NASA CubeSat carrying on-board a low-resolution (R~2000--3000), near-ultraviolet (2500--3300 {\AA}) spectrograph. It has a rectangular primary Cassegrain telescope to maximize the collecting area. CUTE, which is planned for launch in Spring 2020, is designed to monitor transiting extra-solar planets orbiting bright, nearby stars aiming at improving our understanding of planet atmospheric escape and star-planet interaction processes. We present here the CUTE data simulator, which we complemented with a basic data reduction pipeline. This pipeline will be then updated once the final CUTE data reduction pipeline is developed. We show here the application of the simulator to the HD209458 system and a first estimate of the precision on the measurement of the transit depth as a function of temperature and magnitude of the host star. We also present estimates of the effect of spacecraft jitter on the final spectral resolution. The simulator has been developed considering also scalability and adaptability to other missions carrying on-board a long-slit spectrograph. The data simulator will be used to inform the CUTE target selection, choose the spacecraft and instrument settings for each observation, and construct synthetic CUTE wavelength-dependent transit light curves on which to develop the CUTE data reduction pipeline.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments and System

Traditional vs modern:Role of breed type in determining enteric methane emissions from cattle grazing as part of contrasting grassland-based systems

Ruminant livestock turn forages and poor-quality feeds into human edible products, but enteric methane (CH4) emissions from ruminants are a significant contributor to greenhouse gases (GHGs) and hence to climate change. Despite the predominance of pasture-based beef production systems in many parts of Europe there are little data available regarding enteric CH4 emissions from free-ranging grazing cattle. It is possible that differences in physiology or behaviour could influence comparative emissions intensities for traditional and modern breed types depending on the nutritional characteristics of the herbage grazed. This study investigated the role of breed type in influencing CH4 emissions from growing beef steers managed on contrasting grasslands typical of intensive (lowland) and extensive (upland) production systems. Using the SF6 dilution technique CH4 emissions were estimated for a modern, fast-growing crossbred (Limousin cross) and a smaller and hardier native breed (Welsh Black) when grazing lowland perennial ryegrass (high nutritional density, low sward heterogeneity) and semi-improved upland pasture (low/medium nutritional density, high sward heterogeneity). Live-weight gain was substantially lower for steers on the upland system compared to the lowland system (0.31 vs. 1.04 kg d-1; s.e.d. = 0.085 kg d-1; P<0.001), leading to significant differences in estimated dry matter intakes (8.0 vs. 11.1 kg DM d-1 for upland and lowland respectively; s.e.d. = 0.68 kg DM d-1; P<0.001). While emissions per unit feed intake were similar for the lowland and upland systems, CH4 emissions per unit of live-weight gain (LWG) were substantially higher when the steers grazed the poorer quality hill pasture (760 vs 214 g kg-1 LWG; s.e.d. = 133.5 g kg-1 LWG; P<0.001). Overall any effects of breed type were relatively small relative to the combined influence of pasture type and location

Effect of breed and pasture type on methane emissions from weaned lambs offered fresh forage

To investigate the extent to which enteric methane (CH(4)) emissions from growing lambs are explained by simple body weight and diet characteristics, a 2 × 2 Latin square changeover design experiment was carried out using two sheep breeds and two fresh pasture types. Weaned lambs of two contrasting breed types were used: Welsh Mountain (WM, a small, hardy hill breed) and Welsh Mule × Texel (TexX, prime lamb) (n = 8 per breed). The lambs were zero-grazed on material cut from recently reseeded perennial ryegrass and extensively managed permanent pasture. In each experimental period, individual ad libitum dry matter intake (DMI) was determined indoors following an adaptation period of 2 weeks, and CH(4) emissions were measured individually in open-circuit respiration chambers over a period of 3 days. Although total daily CH(4) emissions were lower for the WM lambs than for the TexX lambs (13·3 v. 15·7 g/day, respectively) when offered fresh forage, the yield of CH(4) per unit DMI was similar for the two breed types (16·4 v. 17·7 g CH(4)/kg DMI). Total output of CH(4) per day was higher when lambs were offered ryegrass compared with permanent pasture (16·1 v. 12·9 g/day, respectively), which was probably driven by differences in DMI (986 v. 732 g/day). Methane emissions per unit DMI (16·4 v. 17·7 g CH(4)/kg DMI) and proportion of gross energy intake excreted as CH(4) (0·052 v. 0·056 MJ/MJ) were both higher on the permanent pasture. No forage × breed type interactions were identified. The results indicate that forage type had a greater impact than breed type on CH(4) emissions from growing weaned lambs. It can be concluded that when calculating CH(4) emissions for inventory purposes, it is more important to know what forages growing lambs are consuming than to know what breeds they are

A randomized controlled trial of prospective memory rehabilitation in adults with traumatic brain injury

Objective: To examine the efficacy of compensatory prospective memory training, preceded by self-awareness training for adults with traumatic brain injury