Technology Education in New Zealand: The connected curriculum

This paper aims to identify what actually takes place when policy directives bring together Technology Education,Enterprise Education, and the wider Community Partnerships. Since the introduction of a national technology curriculum to New Zealand schools in 1999 there has been little critique as to the intentions of the curriculum. In late 2005 a Ministry of Education two-year Education for Enterprise (E4E) project was contracted to run a professional development programme with a group of 16schools, to examine ways in which teachers’ capability to include education for enterprise can be developed.Specific focus was to be on technology education and the fostering of links with the wider community. This paper will introduce research carried out to analyse the professional development programme and look at the impact it has had on classroom practice with consideration given to the ideologies behind the initiatives.Models of implementation will be identified and exemplars of real practice in the primary classroom will be highlighted. Attempts to align technology and enterprise education will be explored and an argument for technology education making a real difference will be put forward. The paper highlights these key factors: • The nature of a creative connected curriculum; • Practice in primary technology education; • Tensions between reality and ideology; • Fourth generation evaluation

Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century Using PBL as an Integrating Strategy in Science and Technology Education

This paper explores the foundational principles of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as an integrative teaching strategy designed deliberately to cross discipline boundaries in order to make meaningful and lasting connections. The authors suggest that while PBL has in recent times has largely manifested towards a method of inquiry within a single discipline the founding principles and key characteristics that inform PBL may be applied to solving technological inquiry where an understanding and application of scientific principles is fundamental in informing and developing the preferred solution. This paper highlights that in order to be effective classroom educators, in an ever increasing and complex world, pre-service teachers’ need to develop robust mental models and metacognitive skills that are transferable. In supporting this development the rationale and the application of PBL as an integrated teaching and learning strategy in pre-service science and technology education will be examined. This paper suggests that PBL is an effective strategy in supporting inquiry of an interdisciplinary nature as well as developing dispositions that embrace collaborative inquiry and reflective practice

Variscan post-collisional cooling and uplift of the Tatra Mountains crystalline block constrained by integrated zircon, apatite and titanite LA-(MC)-ICP-MS U-Pb dating and rare earth element analyses

LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating of apatite, titanite and zircon from the metamorphic cover of the Western Tatra granite was undertaken to constrain the timing of metamorphic events related to the final stages of Variscan orogenesis and subsequent post-orogenic exhumation. Zircon was found only in one sample from the northern metamorphic envelope. U-Pb ages from the outermost rims of zircons define a concordia age of 346 ± 6 Ma, while the inner rims yield a concordia age of 385 ± 8 Ma. Apatite from three samples from the northern metamorphic envelope yield U-Pb ages of 351.8 ± 4.4 Ma, 346.7 ± 5.9 Ma and 342.6 ± 7.1 Ma. Titanite from an amphibolite from the southern metamorphic envelope yields a U-Pb age of 345.3 ± 4.5 Ma. The age of c. 345 Ma is interpreted to represent the climax of metamorphism and the onset of simultaneous exhumation of the entire Tatra Mountains massif, and is recorded mainly in the northern part of the metamorphic cover. In the southern metamorphic envelope, distinct populations of apatite can be recognized within individual samples based on their rare earth element (REE) and actinide contents. One population of apatite (Ap1) yields a relatively imprecise U-Pb age of 340 ± 31 Ma. This population comprises apatite grains with very similar trace element compositions to apatite in the northern amphibolite samples, which suggests they crystallized under similar metamorphic conditions to their northern counterparts. A second apatite population (Ap2) yields an age of c. 328 ± 22 Ma, which is interpreted as neocrystalline apatite that formed during a late-Variscan (hydrothermal?) process involving (P, F, Ca, REE)-rich fluid migration. The youngest generation of apatite (Ap3) yields a U-Pb age of 260 ± 8 Ma and may have resulted from thermal resetting associated with the regional emplacement of Permian A-type granites. The proposed tectonic model assumes that rapid uplift (and cooling) of the Tatra block initiated at ca. 345 Ma, contemporaneous with anatexis. Subsequent fluid migration, possibly facilitated by extension related to the opening of Paleo-Tethys, affected only the southern part of the Tatra block

Aging modulates the effects of ischemic injury upon mesenchymal cells within the renal interstitium and microvasculature

Abstract The renal mesenchyme contains heterogeneous cells, including interstitial fibroblasts and pericytes, with key roles in wound healing. Although healing is impaired in aged kidneys, the effect of age and injury on the mesenchyme remains poorly understood. We characterized renal mesenchymal cell heterogeneity in young vs old animals and after ischemia‐reperfusion‐injury (IRI) using multiplex immunolabeling and single cell transcriptomics. Expression patterns of perivascular cell markers (α‐SMA, CD146, NG2, PDGFR‐α, and PDGFR‐β) correlated with their interstitial location. PDGFR‐α and PDGFR‐β co‐expression labeled renal myofibroblasts more efficiently than the current standard marker α‐SMA, and CD146 was a superior murine renal pericyte marker. Three renal mesenchymal subtypes; pericytes, fibroblasts, and myofibroblasts, were recapitulated with data from two independently performed single cell transcriptomic analyzes of murine kidneys, the first dataset an aging cohort and the second dataset injured kidneys following IRI. Mesenchymal cells segregated into subtypes with distinct patterns of expression with aging and following injury. Baseline uninjured old kidneys resembled post‐ischemic young kidneys, with this phenotype further exaggerated following IRI. These studies demonstrate that age modulates renal perivascular/interstitial cell marker expression and transcriptome at baseline and in response to injury and provide tools for the histological and transcriptomic analysis of renal mesenchymal cells, paving the way for more accurate classification of renal mesenchymal cell heterogeneity and identification of age‐specific pathways and targets

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From clinical educators to educational scholars and leaders: strategies for developing and advancing a career in health professions education

This toolbox article provides ideas and recommendations for academic and clinical educators seeking roles as educational scholars and leaders

Cost-effectiveness analysis of a physician-implemented medication screening tool in older hospitalised patients in Ireland

Background: A recent randomised controlled trial conducted in an Irish University teaching hospital that evaluated a physician-implemented medication screening tool, demonstrated positive outcomes in terms of a reduction in incident adverse drug reactions. Objective: The present study objective was to evaluate the cost effectiveness of physicians applying this screening tool to older hospitalised patients compared with usual hospital care in the context of the earlier randomised controlled trial. Method: We used a cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a conventional outcome analysis in a cluster randomised controlled trial. Patients in the intervention arm (n = 360) received a multifactorial intervention consisting of medicines reconciliation, communication with patients’ senior medical team, and generation of a pharmaceutical care plan in addition to usual medical and pharmaceutical care. Control arm patients (n = 372) received usual medical and pharmaceutical care only. Incremental cost effectiveness was examined in terms of costs to the healthcare system and an outcome measure of adverse drug reactions during inpatient hospital stay. Uncertainty in the analysis was explored using a cost-effectiveness acceptability curve. Results: On average, the intervention arm was more costly but was also more effective. Compared with usual care (control), the intervention was associated with a non-statistically significant increase of €877 (95% confidence interval − €1807, €3561) in the mean healthcare cost, and a statistically significant decrease of − 0.164 (95% confidence interval − 0.257, − 0.070) in the mean number of adverse drug reaction events per patient. The associated incremental cost-effectiveness ratio per adverse drug reaction averted was €5358. The probability of the intervention being cost effective at threshold values of €0, €5000 and €10,000 was 0.236, 0.455 and 0.680, respectively. Conclusion: Based on the evidence presented, this physician-led intervention is not likely to be cost effective compared with usual hospital care. To inform future healthcare policy decisions in this field, more economic analyses of structured medication reviews by other healthcare professionals and by computerised clinical decision support software need to be conducted

Length of Latency with Preterm Premature Rupture of Membranes before 32 Weeks' Gestation

To describe latency for patients with preterm premature membrane rupture (PPROM) between 24 0/7 and 31 6/7 weeks’ gestation

Exploring Climate‐Smart Land Management for Atlantic Europe

peer-reviewedCore Ideas Managing soil organic carbon is an essential aspect of climate‐smart agriculture. Combining component research, we derive a soil carbon management concept for Ireland. Optimized soil carbon management is differentiated in accordance with soil type. Existing policy tools can be tailored to incentivize climate‐smart land management. Soils can be a sink or source of carbon, and managing soil carbon has significant potential to partially offset agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. While European Union (EU) member states have not been permitted to account for this offsetting potential in their efforts to meet the EU 2020 reduction targets, this policy is now changing for the period 2020 to 2030, creating a demand for land management plans aimed at maximizing the offsetting potential of land. In this letter, we derive a framework for climate‐smart land management in the Atlantic climate zone of the EU by combining the results from five component research studies on various aspects of the carbon cycle. We show that the options for proactive management of soil organic carbon differ according to soil type and that a spatially tailored approach to land management will be more effective than blanket policies.Research Stimulus Fun