Coaching school leadership in Primary Education in Rwanda. Evolutions in Head Teachers’ self-assessment

School leadership is identified as a crucial element for improving the quality of education. This article describes a project on school leadership in Rwandan primary education, in which different groups of head teachers received inputs in varying degrees input on school leadership and follow-up coaching by their sector education officers. A self-assessment tool has been developed to map training needs and to measure professional capacity development, addressing eight dimensions of school leadership. By comparing the mean self-assessment scores of about 196 head teachers, over the course of the first year of the project, we identify how the different experimental groups perceive similar training needs, especially on the dimensions of “reshaping conditions for teaching and learning”, “enriching the curriculum” and “enhancing teacher quality”. However, even at the start of the project, the different experimental groups seem to use the self-assessment tool in different ways. We discuss that further research is needed on the use of the self-assessment tool as measurement as well as capacity development instrument.Keywords: school leadership; primary education; coaching;  self-assessment; capacity developmen

A systematic review of the effects of dietary interventions on neonatal outcomes in adolescent pregnancy

© 2015 The Royal College of Midwives. Background. Poor nutrition negatively impacts on pregnancy outcome, fetal growth and neonatal survival. Adolescent mothers, with competing demands of a growing baby and their own rising nutritional requirements, often have poor diets. Despite recognition of their physiological immaturity and nutritional inadequacies, along with evidence highlighting significant differences between adolescent and adult pregnancy outcomes, systematic evidence on the effects of supplementation on adolescent pregnancy is scarce. Aim. To evaluate the effectiveness of dietary interventions on neonatal outcomes in adolescent pregnancy (19 and under). Method. CENTRAL, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane, Maternity and Infant Care, Scopus and MEDLINE databases were searched using selected terminology. Titles and abstracts were screened with selected papers reviewed in full by two authors against the inclusion criteria. Any randomised controlled trials in which the effects of nutritional interventions were evaluated in adolescent pregnancy were included. Data were extracted on study quality, design, compliance, dose and duration of intervention, and main birth outcomes, and analysed using Review Manager. Results. Five studies out of 18 identified were included. Four used supplementation (three zinc, one calcium) with one intervention comparing dairy products to fortified orange juice. The limited available data showed a significant effect from zinc supplementation in reducing the likelihood of low birthweight (RR [95%CI]: 0.39 [0.15, 0.98], one study, n=507) and that having four servings of dairy per day increased average birthweight in adolescent pregnancy (MD [95%CI]: 240g [110.83, 369.17]). Conclusion. High-quality comparative studies between supplements and food sources to improve birth outcomes for adolescent pregnancies, focusing on the clinical effectiveness and acceptability are urgently needed

Walking in Sync: Two is Company, Three's a Crowd.

Eventual gait synchronization between two individuals while walking and talking with each other has been shown to be an indicator of agreeableness and companionship. The inferred physical signal from this subconscious phenomenon can po-tentially be an indicator of cooperation or relation between two individuals. In this paper we investigate this effect, and whether having a third person actively engaging in the same act or conversation can reduce this synchronization level. Using high frequency accelerometer data from a ded-icated smartphone app, we perform a number of controlled experiments on a number of individuals in different group configuration. Our results bring an interesting insight: it is the non-verbal social signals such as the gaze, head orienta-tion and gestures that is the key factor in synchronization, not necessarily the number or configuration of the walkers. These early results can lead us on detecting relationships between individuals or detecting the group formation and numbers for crowd-sensing applications when only partial data is available. Categories and Subject Descriptors Human-centered computing [Ubiquitous and mobile com-puting]: Empirical studies in ubiquitous and mobile com-putin

A method for high-quality RNA extraction from tall fescue

The isolation of high-quality RNA was a precondition in molecular biology research of tall fescue. Two common approaches were adopted for the total RNA extraction by using leaves of tall fescue as the material in this experiment in order to seek the optimized total RNA extraction method of tall fescue, as well as the improvement of the extraction method used by the predecessors. The results showed that the Trizol method cost much and was not suitable for the large quantity of plant tissues extraction. The traditional isothiocyanate method resulted in protein contamination and RNA degradation. By employing the improved isothiocyanate method, we found that there were three bright bands in agarose gel electrophoresis (28S rRNA, 18S rRNA and 5S rRNA). The band of 28S rRNA was brighter than that of 18S rRNA, and the value of OD260/OD280 was 1.8 to 2.0. Clear bands and high polymorphisms were obtained by cDNA-AFLP analysis. These results indicated that the RNA isolated by the improved isothiocyanate method had a good integrity and high purity, which could be used for the later molecular researches.Key words: Tall fescue, RNA extraction, improved isothiocyanate method

Spin texture and magnetoroton excitations at nu=1/3

Neutral spin texture (ST) excitations at nu=1/3 are directly observed for the first time by resonant inelastic light scattering. They are determined to involve two simultaneous spin flips. At low magnetic fields, the ST energy is below that of the magnetoroton minimum. With increasing in-plane magnetic field these mode energies cross at a critical ratio of the Zeeman and Coulomb energies of eta(c)=0.020 +/- 0.001. Surprisingly, the intensity of the ST mode grows with temperature in the range in which the magnetoroton modes collapse. The temperature dependence is interpreted in terms of a competition between coexisting phases supporting different excitations. We consider the role of the ST excitations in activated transport at nu=1/3

Is the Lambda CDM Model Consistent with Observations of Large-Scale Structure?

The claim that large-scale structure data independently prefers the Lambda Cold Dark Matter model is a myth. However, an updated compilation of large-scale structure observations cannot rule out Lambda CDM at 95% confidence. We explore the possibility of improving the model by adding Hot Dark Matter but the fit becomes worse; this allows us to set limits on the neutrino mass.Comment: To appear in Proceedings of "Sources and Detection of Dark Matter/Energy in the Universe", ed. D. B. Cline. 6 pages, including 2 color figure

The spatial ordering of knowledge economies: The growth of furniture industry in nineteenth-century London

Small businesses in the same sector tend to be geographically concentrated. Understanding why businesses in some industries cluster is a key issue in urban economic theory, particularly in the Marshallian and Jacobsian traditions. These emphasize the logistical and informational synergies (advantages) that accrue to firms in agglomeration economies, allowing firms located near one another to accelerate their rate of innovation. However, little is known about how spatial forms foster the clustering of firms or the mechanisms through which this process might facilitate knowledge spillover over between different businesses. In this paper we present an historical case study in which space syntax methods, archival research and urban economic theory were used to enhance understanding of the spatial ordering of London's nineteenth-and early twentieth-century furniture industry, a sector characterised by a proliferation of small, local firms. The spatial morphologies of the furniture industry in the Shoreditch and Fitzrovia areas of London are profiled by linking business directories, historical Ordnance Survey maps and Goad fire insurance plans to space syntax measures describing the spatial configuration of London's street network, on a GIS platform. Historically, the two casestudy areas have hosted a wide range of furniture-manufacturing businesses. We hypothesise that the contrast between the spatial structures of the two districts contributed to the divergent paths development of the furniture industry in these places. Our results suggest the two areas developed as different knowledge economies, in part as a consequence of their contrasting spatial configurations and their influence on industrial organization. Shoreditch became a 'specialization' economy (i.e. Marshallian). Here the organic pattern of streets allowed specialized businesses to be located in close proximity to key streets, benefiting from more local footfall, and in close localization of firms belonging to the same industry. Fitzrovia, however, showed a more 'diversified' economy (i.e. Jacobsian), accommodating most of its retailers on streets highly integrated across scales and more commercially-driven. In the context of constraints of land use and rising land values, manufacturing operations moved to other places whilst retaining large-size firms that created a retail destination in a high footfall location good for attracting passing trade. We anticipate that this research will contribute to understanding the distinctive spatial cultures of urban manufacturing and to the development of a methodological approach that opens up new prospects for inter-disciplinary research

Prolapsed Intervertebral Disc in an African Population: Kenyan Experience

Background: Characteristics of Prolapsed Intervertebral Disc (PID) in Africa, reports are scanty and often disparate.Objectives: To evaluate the distribution of PID by location, age, gender and predisposing factors among African patients at our hospital, the largest regional referral and teaching hospital in Kenya.Patients and Methods: Six hundred and three cases (267 males, 336 females) of prolapsed intervertebral disc over 11 years between January 1997 and December 2007 were analyzed for location, number of prolapsed disks, gender, age and predisposing conditions.Results: Of the determined locations L4/5 was the commonest (42.3%), followed by L5/S1 (25.5%). Seventy seven (20.9%) of the patients had multiple prolapsed disks. 1.4% were in the cervical region, and only one in the thoracic. PID was commonest in the 31 – 50 year age group females (M: F is 1:1.26, p=0.00), with mean age 40.90±13.80 years, (range between 11- 85 years).Conclusions: PID in Kenya is commonest in the lower lumbar region of young people more in females and is associated with trauma

Toward High-Precision Measures of Large-Scale Structure

I review some results of estimation of the power spectrum of density fluctuations from galaxy redshift surveys and discuss advances that may be possible with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I then examine the realities of power spectrum estimation in the presence of Galactic extinction, photometric errors, galaxy evolution, clustering evolution, and uncertainty about the background cosmology.Comment: 24 pages, including 11 postscript figures. Uses crckapb.sty (included in submission). To appear in ``Ringberg Workshop on Large-Scale Structure,'' ed D. Hamilton (Kluwer, Amsterdam), p. 39