Support and services for parents : a review of practice development in Scotland

Three year national evaluated pilot intended to focus on systems and practice for the operation of Parenting orders

Support and Services for Parents:A Review of the Literature in Engaging and Supporting Parents

This literature review aims to draw together existing knowledge on assessing and evaluating parenting interventions. In conducting the literature review, the research team was interested in re-examining the historical policy context to locate the rationale for the introduction of Parenting Orders and the apparent under use of the provisions; to re-examine the evidence of risk and protective factors and the interrelated issues of antisocial behaviour and child care; alongside effective approaches to family service provision. These themes set the context and framework for examining the evidence on the practice of engagement with clients and the use of compulsion

Discovering New Variable Stars at Key Stage 3

Details of the London pilot of the `Discovery Project' are presented, where university-based astronomers were given the chance to pass on some real and applied knowledge of astronomy to a group of selected secondary school pupils. It was aimed at students in Key Stage 3 of their education, allowing them to be involved in real astronomical research at an early stage of their education, the chance to become the official discoverer of a new variable star, and to be listed in the International Variable Star Index database, all while learning and practising research-level skills. Future plans are discussed.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy (NVP) is not just 'Morning Sickness' : data from a prospective cohort study

Background: Nausea and vomiting in pregnancy is usually called ‘morning sickness’. This is felt by sufferers to trivialise the condition. Symptoms have been described as occurring both before and after noon, but daily symptom patterns have not been clearly described and statistically modelled to enable the term ‘morning sickness’ to be accurately analysed. Aim: To describe the daily variation in nausea and vomiting symptoms during early pregnancy in a group of sufferers. Design and setting: A prospective cohort study of females recruited from 15 May 2014 to 17 February 2017 by Swiss Precision Diagnostics (SPD) Development Company Limited, which was researching hormone levels in early pregnancy and extended its study to include the description of pregnancy symptoms. Method: Daily symptom diaries of nausea and vomiting were kept by females who were trying to conceive. They also provided daily urine samples, which when analysed enabled the date of ovulation to be determined. Data from 256 females who conceived during the first month of the study are included in this article. Daily symptom patterns and changes in daily patterns by week of pregnancy were modelled. Functional data analysis was used to produce estimated symptom probability functions. Results: There was a peak probability of nausea in the morning, a lower but sustained probability of nausea throughout the day, and a slight peak in the evening. Vomiting had a defined peak incidence in the morning. Conclusion: Referring to nausea and vomiting in pregnancy as simply ‘morning sickness’ is inaccurate, simplistic, and therefore unhelpful

Development of a reliable, valid measure to assess parents' and teachers' understanding of postural care for children EKHUT Internal Grant Reportwith physical disabilities.

Schools play an important role in facilitating the day time aspects of postural management programmes for children with physical disabilities, enabling children to participate at school and engage in functional tasks associated with school work; however, the majority of teachers and teaching assistants are inexperienced and lack confidence in how to manage the needs of children with a physical disability (Hutton & Coxon 2010). “Definition: A postural management programme is a planned approach encompassing all activities and interventions which impact on an individual's posture and function. Programmes are tailored specifically for each child and may include special seating, night-time support, standing supports, active exercise, orthotics, surgical interventions, and individual therapy sessions. Gericke (2006) A small exploratory study of the views of teachers and teaching assistants recommended that information about postural care be made widely available to parents and teachers in order to assist them in their role as care givers for children with disabilities. In response to these findings, a booklet, the “A-Z of Postural Care” was developed by a team of researchers, therapists, teachers and parents of children with a disability (Hutton et al., 2009)

What are effective strategies for reducing the risk of steroid-induced osteoporosis?

Calcium, in combination with vitamin D, prevents bone loss and is recommended in all patients. (Grade of recommendation: A, based on systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials [RCTs]). Alendronate and risedronate prevent fractures and should be considered for all patients at increased risk of fracture (5 mg of prednisone or equivalent, daily for longer than 3 months). (Grade of recommendation: A, based on RCTs) Replacement of sex hormones in hypogonadal patients prevents bone loss and increases bone mineral density (BMD). (Grade of recommendation: A for women, based on RCTs; B for men, based on one randomized, crossover trial.) Calcitonin prevents bone loss for up to 1 year. (Grade of recommendation: A, based on systematic review.

Occurrence of OsHV-1 in Crassostrea gigas cultured in Ireland during an exceptionally warm summer. Selection of less susceptible oysters

The occurrence of OsHV-1, a herpes virus causing mass mortality in the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas was investigated with the aim to select individuals with different susceptibility to the infection. Naïve spat transferred to infected areas and juveniles currently being grown at those sites were analyzed using molecular and histology approaches. The survey period distinguishes itself by very warm temperatures reaching up to 3.5°C above the average. The virus was not detected in the virus free area although a spread of the disease could be expected due to high temperatures. Overall mortality, prevalence of infection and viral load was higher in spat confirming the higher susceptibility in early life stages. OsHV-1 and oyster mortality were detected in naïve spat after 15 days of cohabitation with infected animals. Although, infection was associated with mortality in spat, the high seawater temperatures could also be the direct cause of mortality at the warmest site. One stock of juveniles suffered an event of abnormal mortality that was significantly associated with OsHV-1 infection. Those animals were infected with a previously undescribed microvariant whereas the other stocks were infected with OsHV-1 μVar. Cell lesions due to the infection were observed by histology and true infections were corroborated by in situ hybridization. Survivors from the natural outbreak were exposed to OsHV-1 μVar by intramuscular injection and were compared to naïve animals. The survival rate in previously exposed animals was significantly higher than in naïve oysters. Results derived from this study allowed the selection of animals that might possess interesting characteristics for future analysis on OsHV-1 resistance

Using event-related fMRI to examine sustained attention processes and effects of APOE ε4 in young adults

In this study we investigated effects of the APOE ε4 allele (which confers an enhanced risk of poorer cognitive ageing, and Alzheimer’s Disease) on sustained attention (vigilance) performance in young adults using the Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVIP) task and event-related fMRI. Previous fMRI work with this task has used block designs: this study is the first to image an extended (6-minute) RVIP task. Participants were 26 carriers of the APOE ε4 allele, and 26 non carriers (aged 18–28). Pupil diameter was measured throughout, as an index of cognitive effort. We compared activity to RVIP task hits to hits on a control task (with similar visual parameters and response requirements but no working memory load): this contrast showed activity in medial frontal, inferior and superior parietal, temporal and visual cortices, consistent with previous work, demonstrating that meaningful neural data can be extracted from the RVIP task over an extended interval and using an event-related design. Behavioural performance was not affected by genotype; however, a genotype by condition (experimental task/control task) interaction on pupil diameter suggested that ε4 carriers deployed more effort to the experimental compared to the control task. fMRI results showed a condition by genotype interaction in the right hippocampal formation: only ε4 carriers showed downregulation of this region to experimental task hits versus control task hits. Experimental task beta values were correlated against hit rate: parietal correlations were seen in ε4 carriers only, frontal correlations in non-carriers only. The data indicate that, in the absence of behavioural differences, young adult ε4 carriers already show a different linkage between functional brain activity and behaviour, as well as aberrant hippocampal recruitment patterns. This may have relevance for genotype differences in cognitive ageing trajectories

Skills - Mutual Recognition Standard

This document describes the development of a mutual recognition standard in order to issue digital “Maker Passports” that show skills and experience levels of makers