A School Perspective on School-Embedded Initial Teacher Education

School-university partnerships have been developed to invigorate initial teacher education (ITE). Such partnerships potentially offer rich educational opportunities to pre-service teachers. This paper examines integrated and school-embedded approaches to ITE in the Australian context, drawing on a case study analysis of a three-year, ITE school-university-system partnership named inSITE. inSITE is explored from the perspective of the school educators directly involved in its design and delivery. Complexity science provided the theoretical framework for inSITE and signalled its principles of holism, integration and reflective practice. The factors that contributed to and inhibited school-based initial teacher education from a school’s perspective are identified. The paper concludes that, given conducive conditions, an integrated, embedded and reflective approach can address the prevailing theory-practice dualism of ITE and may offer an important third way to prepare new teachers. The challenges and opportunities for school-embedded ITE in Australia are highlighted

Genotype-Phenotype Correlation in NF1: Evidence for a More Severe Phenotype Associated with Missense Mutations Affecting NF1 Codons 844–848

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a common genetic disorder with a birth incidence of 1:2,000–3,000, is characterized by a highly variable clinical presentation. To date, only two clinically relevant intragenic genotype-phenotype correlations have been reported for NF1 missense mutations affecting p.Arg1809 and a single amino acid deletion p.Met922del. Both variants predispose to a distinct mild NF1 phenotype with neither externally visible cutaneous/plexiform neurofibromas nor other tumors. Here, we report 162 individuals (129 unrelated probands and 33 affected relatives) heterozygous for a constitutional missense mutation affecting one of five neighboring NF1 codons—Leu844, Cys845, Ala846, Leu847, and Gly848—located in the cysteine-serine-rich domain (CSRD). Collectively, these recurrent missense mutations affect ∼0.8% of unrelated NF1 mutation-positive probands in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) cohort. Major superficial plexiform neurofibromas and symptomatic spinal neurofibromas were more prevalent in these individuals compared with classic NF1-affected cohorts (both p < 0.0001). Nearly half of the individuals had symptomatic or asymptomatic optic pathway gliomas and/or skeletal abnormalities. Additionally, variants in this region seem to confer a high predisposition to develop malignancies compared with the general NF1-affected population (p = 0.0061). Our results demonstrate that these NF1 missense mutations, although located outside the GAP-related domain, may be an important risk factor for a severe presentation. A genotype-phenotype correlation at the NF1 region 844–848 exists and will be valuable in the management and genetic counseling of a significant number of individuals

Longitudinal prevalence of potentially inappropriate medicines and potential prescribing omissions in a cohort of community-dwelling older people

PURPOSE: This study aims to compare the prevalence of potentially inappropriate medicines (PIMs) and potential prescribing omissions (PPOs) using several screening tools in an Irish community-dwelling older cohort, to assess if the prevalence changes over time and to determine factors associated with any change. METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study of participants aged ≥65 years in The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) with linked pharmacy claims data (n = 2051). PIM and PPO prevalence was measured in the year preceding participants’ TILDA baseline interviews and in the year preceding their follow-up interviews using the Screening Tool for Older Persons’ Prescriptions (STOPP), Beers criteria (2012), Assessing Care of Vulnerable Elders (ACOVE) indicators and the Screening Tool to Alert doctors to Right Treatment (START). Generalised estimating equations were used to determine factors associated with change in prevalence over time. RESULTS: Depending on the screening tool used, between 19.8 % (ACOVE indicators) and 52.7 % (STOPP) of participants received a PIM at baseline, and PPO prevalence ranged from 38.2 % (START) to 44.8 % (ACOVE indicators), while 36.7 % of participants had both a PIM and PPO. Common criteria were aspirin for primary prevention (19.6 %) and omission of calcium/vitamin D in osteoporosis (14.7 %). Prevalence of PIMs and PPOs increased at follow-up (PIMs range 22–56.1 %, PPOs range 40.5–49.3 %), and this was associated with patient age, female sex, and numbers of medicines and chronic conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Sub-optimal prescribing is common in older patients. Ongoing prescribing review to optimise care is important, particularly as patients get older, receive more medicines or develop more illnesses. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00228-015-1815-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users