The School Improvement Partnership Programme: Using Collaboration and Enquiry to tackle Educational Inequity

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Reading Disorders

There are two major types of reading disorder; developmental dyslexia and reading comprehension impairment. The primary difficulty in dyslexia is with the accurate and fluent reading of single words, whilst in reading comprehension impairment words can be read accurately but there is no or little understanding of what is read. Using the causal modelling framework, the underlying causes of the two disorders are reviewed together with the co-occurrence of reading and language disorders. The rationale for viewing reading as a dimensional disorder, where the difficulties experienced are on a continuum rather than using cut-off points to identify disorders is also reviewed

Radiative lifetimes and cooling functions for astrophysically important molecules

© 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. Extensive line lists generated as part of the ExoMol project are used to compute lifetimes for individual rotational, rovibrational and rovibronic excited states, and temperature-dependent cooling functions by summing over all dipole-allowed transitions for the states concerned. Results are presented for SiO, CaH, AlO, ScH, H2O and methane. The results for CH4 are particularly unusual with four excited states with no dipole-allowed decay route and several others, where these decays lead to exceptionally long lifetimes. These lifetime data should be useful in models of masers and estimates of critical densities, and can provide a link with laboratory measurements. Cooling functions are important in stellar and planet formation

Dietary value for money? Investigating how the monetary value of diets in the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) relate to dietary energy density

Estimating the monetary value of individuals’ diets allows investigation into how costs relate to dietary quality. A number of studies(1–2), including one in Scotland(3), have reported a strong negative relationship between diet costs and energy density. Most studies of this type neglect to address the issue of mathematical coupling, where energy is both the numerator in the energy density variable (kJ/g) and the denominator in energy-adjusted diet cost (e.g. E/10 MJ). As a result, the findings could be reflecting a mathematical relationship(4). This study investigated how estimated diet costs of NDNS adults relate to dietary energy density using the ‘residuals’ regressionmethod to account for energy. Diet diary information from 2008–2010 was matched to an in-house database of national average (2004) food prices (the DANTE cost database) to assign a cost to each food and non-alcoholic beverage consumed. Mean daily diet costs and costs per 10 MJ were calculated for each participant. Energy density (g/kJ) was derived from foods and milk. The sample median diet cost was £2.84 per day (IQR £2.27, £3.64), or £4.05 per 10MJ (£3.45, £4.82). Values for energy density, food energy, and diet costs by quintiles of dietary energy density (1 = least energy dense) are presented in the table. Adjusted linear regression found a strong negative relationship: additional standard deviation above the diet cost expected for a given energy intake (the residual), there was an associated decrease in energy density of 0.46kJ/g (95% CI - 0.53, - 0.38, p<0.001). This is the first time individual-level diet costs have been characterized for a representative British population. These diet costs represent the inherent value of the diet, and are not comparable to UK expenditure data. The analyses confirm a diet cost-energy density link that is not due to mathematical artefact, and suggest that those consuming more energy-dense diets are achieving more kilojoules for their money

Am I dyslexic? Parental self-report of literacy difficulties

In the absence of criteria for the diagnosis of dyslexia, considerable weight is given to self-report, in particular in studies of children at family risk of dyslexia. The present paper uses secondary data from a previous study to compare parents who self-report as dyslexic and those who do not, in relation to objectively determined levels of ability. In general, adults are more likely to self-report as 'dyslexic' if they have poorer reading and spelling skills and also if there is a discrepancy between IQ and measured literacy. However, parents of higher social status who have mild literacy difficulties are more likely to self-report as dyslexic than parents who have weaker literacy skills but are less socially advantaged. Together the findings suggest that the judgement as to whether or not a parent considers themselves 'dyslexic' is made relative to others in the same social sphere. Those who are socially disadvantaged may, in turn, be less likely to seek support for their children

Urinary tract infections in children and the risk of ESRF.

Paediatric guidance on diagnosis and treatment of urinary tract infections (UTIs) has in the past largely focused on identifying children with vesicoureteral reflux, thought to be at greatest risk of renal scarring. This practice has been questioned, specifically the accepted association between UTI and end-stage renal failure (ESRF) through renal scarring. The aim of this article is to ascertain whether we can predict with confidence the true level of risk that a child with a first-time UTI will subsequently develop ESRF attributable to UTI

Work-life imbalance: informal care and paid employment

In the United Kingdom informal carers are people who look after relatives or friends who need extra support because of age, physical or learning disability or illness. The majority of informal carers are women and female carers also care for longer hours and for longer durations than men. Thus women and older women in particular, shoulder the burden of informal care. We consider the costs of caring in terms of the impact that these kinds of caring responsibilities have on employment. The research is based on the responses of informal carers to a dedicated questionnaire and in-depth interviews with a smaller sub-sample of carers. Our results indicate that the duration of a caring episode as well as the hours carers commit to caring impact on their employment participation. In addition carers’ employment is affected by financial considerations, the needs of the person they care for, carers’ beliefs about the compatibility of informal care and paid work and employers’ willingness to accommodate carers’ needs. Overall, the research confirms that informal carers continue to face difficulties when they try to combine employment and care in spite of recent policy initiatives designed to help them