Nurturing the young shoots of talent: Using action research for exploration and theory building

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 19(4), 433-450, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1350293X.2011.623515.This paper reports the outcomes of a set of action research projects carried out by teacher researchers in 14 local education authorities in England, working collaboratively with university tutors, over a period of three years. The common aim of all the projects was to explore practical ways of nurturing the gifts and talents of children aged four–seven years. The project was funded by the Department of Education and Skills in England as part of the government's gifted and talented programme. The project teachers felt that their understanding of issues relating to nurturing the gifts and talents of younger children was enhanced through their engagement in the project. It was possible to map the findings of the projects to the English government's National Quality Standards for gifted and talented education which include: (1) identification; (2) effective provision in the classroom; (3) enabling curriculum entitlement and choice; (4) assessment for learning; (5) engaging with community, families and beyond. The findings are also analysed within the framework of good practice in educating children in the first years of schooling. Participating practitioners felt that action research offered them a suitable methodology to explore the complexity of the topic of giftedness through cycles of planning, action and reflection and personal theory building

Mathematically gifted and talented learners: Theory and practice

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 40(2), 213-228, 2009, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00207390802566907.There is growing recognition of the special needs of mathematically gifted learners. This article reviews policy developments and current research and theory on giftedness in mathematics. It includes a discussion of the nature of mathematical ability as well as the factors that make up giftedness in mathematics. The article is set in the context of current developments in Mathematics Education and Gifted Education in the UK and their implications for Science and Technology. It argues that early identification and appropriate provision for younger mathematically promising pupils capitalizes on an intellectual resource which could provide future mathematicans as well as specialists in Science or Technology. Drawing on a Vygotskian framework, it is suggested that the mathematically gifted require appropriate cognitive challenges as well as attitudinally and motivationally enhancing experiences. In the second half of this article we report on an initiative in which we worked with teachers to identify mathematically gifted pupils and to provide effective enrichment support for them, in a number of London Local Authorities. A number of significant issues are raised relating to the identification of mathematical talent, enrichment provision for students and teachers’ professional development

Mitral valve replacement for rheumatic heart disease in Southern Africa

Background: Threshold countries like South Africa provide cardiac surgery to a largely indigent population with rheumatic heart disease. Although repairs are a preferred treatment modality many rheumatic mitral valves can only be replaced. In view of significantly improved primary health care and broad access of the indigent population to communication technology we revisited the efficacy of mitral valve replacement (MVR) at the interface of the developing and developed world. Methods: A cohort of 280 patients (mean age 40.7±13.7y/range 12-80y/median 41y; 76.4% female) with rheumatic heart disease (21% MR; 11% MS; 68% mixed) undergoing mitral valve replacement (MVR) (88.2% mechanical versus 11.8% tissue valves) was analyzed

Recycling Waste Electrical Socket as a Carbon Resource in Ironmaking

Globally, millions of waste electrical sockets (WES) are generated annually. This category of waste material is difficult to recycle because they are thermosetting polymers which cannot be remoulded after setting. In this work, the reduction of medium grade Agbaja iron ore from Nigeria, by carbonaceous materials generated from WES was investigated through experiments conducted in a domestic microwave oven. Composite pellets of medium grade Agbaja iron ore (assaying ~74 % Fe2O3) with WES were irradiated in a domestic microwave oven (Pioneer, Model PM-25 L, 2450 MHz and 1000 W). The reduced mass was characterised by XRD and SEM/EDS analyses and the extent of reduction after 40 min was determined. SEM/EDS analysis revealed a highly reduced mass with distinct peaks of elemental iron and this was corroborated by XRD analyses that confirmed the formation of metallic iron. The extent of reduction obtained after using WES as reductant was over 80%. Accordingly, carbonaceous materials generated from waste electrical sockets are effective reductants for producing metallic iron from the Agbaja iron ore. Keywords: Waste Electrical Sockets, Thermosetting Polymer, Agbaja Iron Ore; Municipal Solid Waste

Cardiac magnetic resonance in patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy: is it time to scan with resynchronization on?

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is recommended in international guidelines for patients with heart failure due to important left ventricular systolic dysfunction (or heart failure with reduced ejection fraction) and ventricular conduction tissue disease. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) represents the most powerful imaging tool for dynamic assessment of the volumes and function of cardiac chambers but is rarely utilized in patients with CRT due to limitations on the device, programming and scanning. In this review, we explore the known utility of CMR in this cohort with discussion of the risks and potential benefits of scanning whilst CRT is active, including a practical strategy for conducting high quality scans safely. Our contention is that imaging in patients with CRT could be improved further by keeping resynchronization therapy active with resultant benefits on research and also patient outcomes

Production of Metallic Iron from the Pudo Magnetite Ore using End-of-Life Rubber Tyre as Reductant: The Role of an Underlying Ankerite Ore as a Fluxing Agent on Productivity

This research work investigated the nature of a nonmagnetic ore from Pudo in the Upper West Region of Ghana and its fluxing effect on the extent of reduction of the Pudo titaniferous magnetite ore using pulverised samples of charred carbonaceous materials generated from end-of-life vehicle tyres (ELT) as reductants. Reduction studies were conducted on composite pellets of the Pudo titaniferous magnetite iron ore containing fixed amounts of charred ELT and varying amounts (0%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%) of the nonmagnetic fluxing material in a domestic microwave oven and the extent of reduction was calculated after microwave irradiation for 40 minutes. Analyses by XRF, SEM/EDS and XRD of the nonmagnetic ore revealed an Ankerite type of ore of the form Ca0.95Fe0.95Mn0.1 (CO3)2. From the microwave reduction studies it was observed that premium grade metallic iron could be produced from appropriate blends of the Pudo iron ores using ELT as reductant, with a measured extent of reduction up to 103.8%. Further, the extent of reduction was observed to increase with an increase in the amount of the nonmagnetic fluxing material (Ankerite) that was added as fluxing agent.   Keywords: Ankerite, End-of-life Rubber Tyres, Fluxing Agent, Extent of Reductio

Applying sense-making to integrated health IT: Renal care in the UK and Sweden

Information technology (IT) in healthcare combines opportunities for improved integrated healthcare delivery with barrierswhich include clinician resistance and low adoption rates. While national level initiatives are taken to promote electronichealthcare (e-health), it is at the grassroots level that their outcomes unfold. This paper employs sense-making theory toextend prior research on the implementation of health IT by investigating the introduction of IT into renal care units in theUK and Sweden. Issues such as management support, user training, usability of systems and perceived benefits of technologywere found to have a direct impact on users’ sense-making processes. The manner in which people make sense of imposedsystems has far reaching effects, as the gap between intended results and actual outcomes is not limited to disparities betweenmicro-level end-users alone, but spans multiple levels including higher authorities, as well as individuals at the grassrootslevel

Long term outcome and EuroSCORE II validation in native valve surgery for active infective endocarditis in a South African cohort

Objectives: To evaluate the major risk factors for adverse short and long term outcomes in patients with active native valve infective endocarditis needing cardiac surgery and to validate the EuroSCORE II in our cohort of patients.Methods: We retrospectively studied 149 patients who underwent native valve surgery for infective endocarditis in June 2000 - May 2011 at our referral centre. Ninety-six patients met the inclusion criteria for the study: 29 aortic valve replacements (AVR), 27 mitral valve replacements (MVR), 28 aortic/mitral (double) valve replacements (DVR) and 12 mitral valve repairs (MV Repair).Results: Mechanical valves were implanted in 68 patients (70.8%), bioprosthetic valves in 16 (16.7%) and mitral annuloplasty rings in 12 (12.5%). The Cox proportional hazard model showed that the most important risk factors for early 30-day mortality were: critical preoperative state, emergency surgery, EuroSCORE II >12%, low cardiac output state (LCOS), HIV positive status, preoperative embolic episodes, vegetation size >1cm and postoperative ventilation >24 hours. The EuroSCORE II underestimated early mortality for the entire cohort. The discriminatory ability was evaluated with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve with an area under the curve of 0.796. The discriminatory ability in the subgroup analysis showed that the AUROC curve was poorer for MVR (0.696), 0.837 for DVR and better for AVR group (0.92).Conclusions: The EuroSCORE II underestimated mortality in the highest risk groups and overestimated mortality in the lowest risk groups. The discriminatory ability and model fit were evaluated to be good and a EuroSCORE II >12% predicted a signifi cantly higher early and medium term mortality