BERA-TACTYC Early Childhood Research Review 2003-2017

BERA/TACTYC Review of Early Childhood Education and Care in the UK, 2003-2017 has involved a wide range of early childhood specialists, both in the early consultation stages, and in writing the five main sections of the Review. Teams of authors and their reference groups came together from TACTYC – the Association for Professional Development in Early Years, and the BERA Early Childhood Education and Care SIG. Using specific questions to interrogate the literature, each team worked on one of five main themes: Professionalism; Parenting and Family; Play and Pedagogy; Learning, Development and Curriculum, and Assessment and School Readiness. These themes are contextualised within broad policy issues in the UK. The Introduction shows the working methods for the Review, and the Conclusion brings together key messages and suggestions for future research. We hope that the Review will prove useful to a range of early childhood specialists, including students, researchers, practitioners, policy makers and teachers in further and higher education. We intend to create a User Review that will be aimed at practitioners and to engage other stakeholders in current trends and debates. The Review is being launched at a time of change and uncertainty within early childhood education and care, and we hope that the Review will provide a focal point for discussions about future directions in the four UK policy frameworks, the importance of research, and how we use research evidence to inform provision and practice

Acute abdomen caused by bladder rupture attributable to neurogenic bladder dysfunction following a stroke: a case report.

INTRODUCTION: Spontaneous bladder rupture is a rare and serious event with high mortality. It is not often considered in the patient presenting with peritonitis. This often leads to delays in diagnosis. There are very few case reports of true spontaneous rupture in the literature. This is the first such reported case in which bladder rupture was attributable to neurogenic bladder dysfunction following a stroke. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 67-year-old Caucasian man who presented with lower abdominal pain and a peritonitic abdomen. He had a long-term urethral catheter because of urinary retention following a previous stroke. He was treated conservatively with antibiotics before a surgical opinion was sought. Exploratory laparotomy confirmed the diagnosis of spontaneous bladder rupture. After repair of the defect, he eventually made a full recovery. CONCLUSION: In this unusual case report, we describe an example of a serious event in which delays in diagnosis may lead to increased morbidity and mortality. To date, no unifying theory explaining why rupture occurs has been postulated. We conducted a thorough literature search to examine the etiological factors in other published cases. These etiological factors either increase intra-vesical pressure or decrease the strength of the bladder wall. We hope that by increasing awareness of these etiological factors, spontaneous bladder rupture may be diagnosed earlier and appropriate therapy started

Medial Prefrontal Cortex Predicts Intertemporal Choice

People often make shortsighted decisions to receive small benefits in the present rather than large benefits in the future, that is, to favor their current selves over their future selves. In two studies using fMRI, we demonstrated that people make such decisions in part because they fail to engage in the same degree of self-referential processing when thinking about their future selves. When participants predicted how much they would enjoy an event in the future, they showed less activity in brain regions associated with introspective self-reference—such as the ventromedial pFC (vMPFC)—than when they predicted how much they would enjoy events in the present. Moreover, the magnitude of vMPFC reduction predicted the extent to which participants made shortsighted monetary decisions several weeks later. In light of recent findings that the vMPFC contributes to the ability to simulate future events from a first-person perspective, these data suggest that shortsighted decisions result in part from a failure to fully imagine the subjective experience of one's future self.Psycholog

Structure of microbial communities in Sphagnum peatlands and effect of atmospheric carbon dioxide enrichment

Little is known about the structure of microbial communities in Sphagnum peatlands, and the potential effects of the increasing atmospheric C02 concentration on these communities are not known. We analyzed the structure of microbial communities in five Sphagnum-dominated peatlands across Europe and their response to C02 enrichment using miniFACE systems. After three growing seasons, Sphagnum samples were analyzed for heterotrophic bacteria, cyanobacteria, microalgae, heterotrophic flagellates, ciliates, testate amoebae, fungi, nematodes, and rotifers. Heterotrophic organisms dominated the microbial communities and together represented 78% to 97% of the total microbial biomass. Testate amoebae dominated the protozoan biomass. A canonical correspondence analysis revealed a significant correlation between the microbial community data and four environmental variables (Na+, DOC, water table depth, and DIN), reflecting continentality, hydrology, and nitrogen deposition gradients. Carbon dioxide enrichment modified the structure of microbial communities, but total microbial biomass was unaffected. The biomass of heterotrophic bacteria increased by 48%, and the biomass of testate amoebae decreased by 13%. These results contrast with the absence of overall effect on methane production or on the vegetation, but are in line with an increased below-ground vascular plant biomass at the same sites. We interpret the increase in bacterial biomass as a response to a C02-induced enhancement of Sphagnum exudation. The causes for the decrease of testate amoebae are unclear but could indicate a top-down rather than a bottom-up control on their densit

Ammonia exposure promotes algal biomass in an ombrotrophic peatland

Nitrogen pollution affects many peatlands with consequences for their biodiversity and ecosystem function. Microorganisms control nutrient cycling and constitute most of the biodiversity of peatlands but their response to nitrogen is poorly characterised and likely to depend on the form of deposition. Using a unique field experiment we show that ammonia exposure at realistic point source levels is associated with a general shift from heterotrophic (bacteria and fungi) to autotrophic (algal) dominance and an increase in total biomass. The biomass of larger testate amoebae increased, suggesting increased food supply for microbial predators. Results show the widespread impacts of N pollution and suggest the potential for microbial community-based bioindicators in these ecosystems

Valuation of Scholarly Activities for Physical Therapy Faculty

Purpose/Hypothesis: Physical therapy (PT) faculty are required to participate in scholarly endeavors. Scholarly productivity is frequently evaluated based on quantity of production.1-3 This approach fails to account for quality (e.g. authorship order, presentation audience, or funding). Study aims: 1) compare PT program scholarly productivity valuations between programs of varying Carnegie Classification, 2) establish a scholarly activity measure which accounts for quality, and 3) provide an applied example of the new measure. Number of Subjects: PT Program Directors from CAPTE institutions (n=226) were surveyed using Dillman’s protocol.4 Materials/Methods: Respondents were asked to value (0 – 20) 30 scholarly activities (e.g., grants, publications, presentations, patents). A peer reviewed publication was the benchmark (score of 10) to which all options were compared. Nine additional questions asked about bonus value (0-100%) for impact factor, authorship order, role on a grant, and grant competitiveness. The mean for each component was the value that component contributed to the Scholar Score. Comparisons were performed via ANOVA models. Results: We received 59 responses (response rate 26%) from Professors (n=28), Associate Profs (n=28), and Assistant Profs (n=3) from institutions of Carnegie Classifications: Doctoral (n=26), Masters (n=22), and Special Focus (n=11). Significant effects of classification were observed for two of the bonus items: Last Author (p=.015) and Role as Co- PI/PI on a Grant (p=.03). Post hoc comparisons using the Bonferroni correction indicated Last Author and Grant Role assigned bonuses were less for Masters programs than for Doctoral programs [(M=25.9, SD=28.7 vs. M=53.5, SD=34.4, p=.02) and (M=49.0, SD=32.5 vs. M=77.3, SD=36.7, p=.03), respectively]. No other pairwise comparisons were significant. Responses were used to develop a Scholar Score based on perceived quality. Scholarly achievements from curriculum vitaes of two early-career PT faculty demonstrates the application of this new measure. While the numerical count of their scholarly products was identical, Scholar Scores differed by \u3e70%. Conclusions: The Scholar Score was developed from PT Program Director input. Directors from different Carnegie Classified institutions reported similar values for most components. This indicates the Scholar Score may be generalizable to PT faculty across all Carnegie Classifications. Our application example demonstrates how quantity and quality-based descriptions differ. Clinical Relevance : Scholarly activity plays an integral role in the career advancement of the PT faculty. A Scholar Score offers a clear and uniform, peer validated approach to the valuation of scholarly activities for PT educators. KEYWORDS: faculty development, research, early career. References Kaufman RR. Career factors help predict productivity in scholarship among faculty members in physical therapist education programs. Phys Ther. 03;89(3):204-216. Hinman MR, Brown T. Changing profile of the physical therapy professoriate--are we meeting CAPTE\u27s expectations? J Phys Ther Educ. 2017;31(4):95-104. Emerick, T., et al. (2013). Scholarly activity points: a new tool to evaluate resident scholarly productivity. British Journal Of Anaesthesia 111(3): 468-476. Dillman DA. Mail and internet surveys: The tailored design method. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons; 2000. Tscharntke T. Author sequence and credit for contributions in multiauthored publications. PLoS biology. 01;5(1):e18. Richter RR. Journal publication productivity in academic physical therapy programs in the United States and Puerto Rico from 1998 to 2002. Phys Ther. 03;88(3):376-386

The Origin And Loss Of Periodic Patterning In The Turtle Shell

The origin of the turtle shell over 200 million years ago greatly modified the amniote body plan, and the morphological plasticity of the shell has promoted the adaptive radiation of turtles. The shell, comprising a dorsal carapace and a ventral plastron, is a layered structure formed by basal endochondral axial skeletal elements (ribs, vertebrae) and plates of bone, which are overlain by keratinous ectodermal scutes. Studies of turtle development have mostly focused on the bones of the shell; however, the genetic regulation of the epidermal scutes has not been investigated. Here, we show that scutes develop from an array of patterned placodes and that these placodes are absent from a soft-shelled turtle in which scutes were lost secondarily. Experimentally inhibiting Shh, Bmp or Fgf signaling results in the disruption of the placodal pattern. Finally, a computational model is used to show how two coupled reaction-diffusion systems reproduce both natural and abnormal variation in turtle scutes. Taken together, these placodal signaling centers are likely to represent developmental modules that are responsible for the evolution of scutes in turtles, and the regulation of these centers has allowed for the diversification of the turtle shell