Measuring the Quality of Developmental Services for Young Children: A New Approach

Outlines performance measures for Medicaid and other agencies' assessment of developmental services, including screening and referring children with or at risk for developmental disabilities; interventions; and guidance for parents. Explores barriers

Ebola Contact Tracing Study data

The collection contains four datasets captured in the Ebola Contact Tracing Study: [1] 'summary_data_cases' contains details of the 41 confirmed Ebola cases included in the study; [2] 'app_data_contacts' contains details of the 646 Ebola contacts registered on the Ebola Contact Tracing App (ECT) smartphone app. These originate from 18 Ebola cases (16 were laboratory confirmed and 2 were “secret burials” that were not confirmed); [3] 'paper_data_contacts' describes 408 Ebola contacts who were identified from 25 Ebola cases for monitoring using the standard paper-based system for contact tracing; and [4] 'main_analysis_dataset' contains information on 804 Ebola contacts and their contact tracing monitoring status collected using both the ECT app and paper-based system

Standard echocardiography versus handheld echocardiography for the detection of subclinical rheumatic heart disease: A systematic review

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a permanent heart valve condition resulting from an abnormal immune reaction to group A streptococcal (GAS) infection typically occurring in childhood. If left untreated, disease progression can result in irreversible heart valve damage, cardiac failure, stroke and premature death. Significantly, RHD is a preventable and treatable chronic condition which mostly effects disadvantaged populations across the world. Moreover, the continued persistence of RHD contributes to considerable amounts of preventable morbidity and mortality, predominantly among adolescents and young adults. The accurate detection of subclinical RHD in children and adolescents, however, remains hampered by the cost of diagnostic machinery and scarcity of trained personnel. Alternative RHD screening tests, which are both accurate and affordable, are therefore needed in many endemic areas. Recently, handheld echocardiography has become widely available with a variety of clinical uses. If shown to be sufficiently accurate, use of these handheld devices could potentially expand access to echocardiographic screening in RHD endemic areas. The research undertaken for this MPH dissertation compares the accuracy of handheld echocardiography for the detection of rheumatic heart disease to the reference standard using systematic review methods. The dissertation is structured into three parts. PART A is a research protocol which describes the background and process of the proposed review. This section details the quantitative methods to be used in the systematic review and meta-analysis of studies which assess the diagnostic accuracy of handheld echocardiography for rheumatic heart disease detection in children and adolescents. The proposed systematic review methods are based on those of the Cochrane Collaboration. PART B is an extended literature review which expands on some of the topics raised in the background section of the protocol. A more in depth insight into the context surrounding the proposed research is offered and its importance highlighted. By reviewing the current body of evidence, this literature review aimed to both describe and contextualise the global burden of rheumatic heart disease whilst providing a rationale for further research into better screening modalities. Similarly, it also sought to describe the importance of understanding rheumatic heart disease epidemiology so that future research and screening programmes may be targeted accordingly. PART C is a full systematic review of diagnostic test accuracy studies presented as a journal ‘ready’ manuscript in a format suitable for submission to PLoS ONE. The background to the systematic review is briefly summarised after which the results are then presented and discussed. The main findings, from seven included studies, provide some evidence for the potential of handheld echocardiography to increase access to echocardiographic screening for rheumatic heart disease. Lastly and in conclusion, implications arising from the findings of the review are posited and suggestions for future research offered

Cinematic Competence and Directorial Persona in Film School: A Study of Socialization and Cultural Production

This thesis examines the role of professional socialization in cultural production, particularly in the popular arts. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in a graduate program of narrative filmmaking, it asks what is taught and what is learned in film school? and answers those questions through an account of two critical domains in film school practice: aesthetic repertoires (including narrative and stylistic competence in cinema), and the social identity of the student director. It also considers the ideology of talent in the school community. Aesthetic practice in the school extends from classical to New Hollywood, the former based on narrative clarity, continuous space and time, and goaloriented protagonists, the latter varying those conventions through the limited use of ambiguity as a narrative and stylistic element. The ideal role of the director in the school and in student filmmaking is the auteur, the film artist who uses narrative and stylistic principles to express a personal vision , and who writes, directs and edits her or his own films in an otherwise collective production process. Beyond a set of tasks, the title director also connotes an identity--who you are as well as what you do. In coming to identify themselves as directors in the school, students cultivate persona, or distinctive personal styles. Through task set, vision and persona, and also through the attribution of talent as an intrapersonal trait, the film director as singular artist merges, despite the divided labor of film production and a populist aesthetic based on a large and heterogeneous commercial audience

When the Balance Isn't Easy: A Case Study Exploring the Complications with Work-Life Balance Initiatives in the Australian Construction Industry

Studies of work and life balance often concentrate on the ways in which employees may require and use flexible work practices to cope with the demands of their other ‘non-work’ activities and responsibilities. This paper adds to our knowledge in this arena through presenting a case study of work-life balance. This case study focuses on managerial and employee issues in implementing organisational work life balance initiatives within the construction industry in Australia. For this case study, the workplace was an ‘alliance’ project, of four collaborating companies undertaking a large infrastructure project. The project management group determined that work-life balance was an important issue within the industry and consequently implemented a five-day instead of the industry standard six-day working week as a balance initiative for the workforce. A range of factors contributed to this five-day week initiative reverting to the original work schedule of a six-day working week. This paper explores these issues and analyses the competing priorities and demands of management in endeavouring to develop alternate strategies to maintain a positive work and life balance for employees. The analysis of this case suggests that management and employees were dedicated to improving work-life balance; however, a range of externalities resulted in not all initiatives being successful. Nevertheless, within the constrained choices, the management group instigated alternate initiatives

Work related road safety: Age, length of service and changes on crash risk

Age and experience are known to be major factors in road traffic collisions (Maycock et al., 1996) and are commonly used as predictors of crash frequency (Evans and Courtney, 1985). But age and experience are difficult to separate when investigating crash risk (Brown, 1982; Ryan et al., 1998; Mayhew and Simpson, 1990; Bierness, 1996). Experience is closely related to age but independently influences crash risk. For age, mileage-adjusted crash risk declines with age but then rises for drivers over 65 (Maycock et al., 1991). This is thought to be due to physical and cognitive declines in older people and to increased risk-taking in younger drivers (Chipman et al., 1992; Clarke et al., 1998; McGwin and Brown, 1999). For experience, even limited driving experience has a major effect on road safety. For example, there is a disproportionately higher crash rate during the first year of driving, particularly in the first few months after licensure (Sagberg, 1998). For age and experience, Mayhew et al. (2003) found larger decreases in crash risk amongst younger novices compared with older novices during the first few months of driving. This was interpreted as due to greater initial risk-taking amongst younger novices, with on-road driving experience facilitating a more rapid learning rate compared with older novices. They suggest that this was an appropriate point at which to provide training intervention. There is reasonable literature on the effects of age and experience on accident involvement, but little is known about whether these effects can be generalised to professional drivers, especially since professional drivers differ substantially from the general population of drivers

The Biopolitics of Education in the Third Reich’s ‘Special Schools’ and ‘Elite Schools’

While discussion of eugenics and biopolitics during the Third Reich has largely focused upon the regime's most destructive and genocidal policies, this article concentrates on Nazi ‘special schools’ and ‘elite schools’ as a crucial sphere of quasi-eugenic thought and praxis, drawing attention to education as a previously under-researched category of intervention in the history of modern biopolitics. The article also sheds new light on the racialized nature of the Nazi ‘national community’ (the Volksgemeinschaft), and contributes to recent debates on the Third Reich's status as a ‘racial state’ which suggest that the National Socialist regime was driven less by fanatical adherence to racial ideology, and more by a mixture of anthropological and eugenic racism, combined with productivist pragmatism. The two case-studies draw attention to less familiar corners of the National Socialist pedagogical landscape, covering both extremes of the spectrum of biological selection in education, from the negative, eugenic policies applied to supposedly ‘abnormal’ pupils at the so-called ‘special schools’ (Hilfsschulen), to the ‘positive’ biological selection of elite-school applicants at the National Political Education Institutes (Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalten, NPEA), the regime's principal training institutions for the future elite of the Third Reich

Understanding the information experiences of parents involved in negotiating post-separation parenting arrangements

The paper presents findings from a study into the information experiences of people needing to make post-separation parenting arrangements. Data was collected from 20 participants, through in-depth, semi-structured, telephone interviews. Thematic analysis identified five major themes: Following, Immersion, Interpersonal, History and Context which depict the information experiences of the participants. The findings can be used as an evidence base to inform the design and delivery of support and services provided by government agencies and other community groups supporting the legal information needs of individuals and families. The work extends current understandings of information experience as an object of study in the information science discipline

Maltreatment-associated neurodevelopmental disorders: a co-twin control analysis

Background: Childhood maltreatment (CM) is strongly associated with psychiatric disorders in childhood and adulthood. Previous findings suggest that the association between CM and psychiatric disorders is partly causal and partly due to familial confounding, but few studies have investigated the mechanisms behind the association between CM and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Our objective was to determine whether maltreated children have an elevated number of NDDs and whether CM is a risk factor for an increased NDD ‘load’ and increased NDD symptoms when controlling for familial effects. Methods: We used a cross-sectional sample from a population-representative Swedish twin study, comprising 8,192 nine-year-old twins born in Sweden between 1997 and 2005. CM was defined as parent-reported exposure to emotional abuse/neglect, physical neglect, physical abuse, and/or sexual abuse. Four NDDs were measured with the Autism–Tics, AD/HD, and other comorbidities inventory. Results: Maltreated children had a greater mean number of NDDs than nonmaltreated children. In a co-twin control design, CM-discordant monozygotic twins did not differ significantly for their number of NDDs, suggesting that CM is not associated with an increased load of NDDs when genetic and shared environmental factors are taken into account. However, CM was associated with a small increase in symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorder in CM-discordant MZ twins, although most of the covariance of CM with NDD symptoms was explained by common genetic effects. Conclusions: Maltreated children are at higher risk of having multiple NDDs. Our findings are, however, not consistent with the notion that CM causes the increased NDD load in maltreated children. Maltreated children should receive a full neurodevelopmental assessment, and clinicians should be aware that children with multiple NDDs are at higher risk of maltreatment