Debt Accumulation and Economic Growth in Emerging Market Economies: Is Debt Promoting or Hindering Growth?

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently warned of the growing accumulation of debt in emerging market economies (EMEs) and the potential for debt crises, a clear warning for investors (Allen, 2018). While the IMF suggests investors may be better served elsewhere, EMEs hold an integral role in the international market as consumers, producers, and entrepreneurs. Despite regular research on advanced economies, middle income countries like EMEs are often ignored. As EMEs grapple with their inability to overcome the current increase in the value of the US Dollar, this study works to understand how debt impacts economic growth and other governance indicators hindering growth through regression analysis. Analyzing EMEs will include variables drawn from World Bank and IMF databases including external debt stocks, regulatory quality estimates, and corruption control estimates. The results will assist in determining what policy options are best to promote economic stability in EMEs, an important task as their impact on the global economy continues to grow. This study will be part of a growing body of research aiming to help EMEs become fully advanced economies

Making sense of critical literacy: interpreting and enacting educational policy in one Scottish local authority

Scottish education is currently undergoing a period of significant change, with the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence in early years establishments, primary and secondary schools. This study focused on how educators in one Scottish local authority interpreted and enacted 'the important skills of critical literacy' (Building the Curriculum 3, Scottish Government, 2008). Critical literacy theory foregrounds issues of social justice, challenge, critique and action for transformation of inequalities in language and social practices; however this thesis posits that dominant government constructions of 'information and critical literacy' and 'higher order thinking skills' effectively remove social justice concerns from critical literacy.This study aimed to add a Scottish perspective to the international literature on critical literacy pedagogies, by investigating the knowledge and beliefs of engaged, informed practitioners who experienced a particular model of critical literacy professional development, which was run in partnership between their local authority and the University of Edinburgh. Interviews were conducted with five teachers and one librarian who participated in the first year of the professional development model, as well as one of the university lecturers who designed and delivered the training and the local authority manager who instigated and facilitated it. I used a critical framework which foregrounds issues of access and power to analyse participants' understandings of the terms literacy and critical literacy and what it means to be literate and critically literate; the resources they identified as useful in developing these understandings; their beliefs about what was distinctive or different about a critical literacy approach; and their descriptions of critical literacy practices in their classrooms and contexts. Considerable complexity was evident in participants' declarative understandings of what it means to be literate and critically literate. Participants defined critical literacy as a natural acuity which should be fostered from the early years of education, rather than a 'higher order skill'. They also identified being critically literate as a capacity to protect children from 'being manipulated' by texts, particularly social media, which subverts the notion of certain texts as potentially harmful and instead posits that lack of awareness of how they might challenge, critique and act to transform such inequalities is the real issue. An overview of critical literacy practices identified by participants is discussed within a framework of how they performed their understandings (Perkins, 1998) of critical literacy theory; I discuss in some detail five critical literacy practices enacted by participants, still within the critical analytical framework which gives prominence to intersections of access and power.The study concludes with a reflexive discussion of the research design and process and proposes several implications for policy and practice in light of the findings. I argue that mainstreaming critical literacy in the nursery, primary and secondary sectors requires that we address the importance of critical pedagogical approaches in the early years; embed critical capacity within dominant constructions of what it means to be literate; and reconstruct prohibition, protectionism or censorship of texts as the development of critical analytical skills. I suggest that Scottish policy makers and enactors look to the adult education curriculum in Scotland, in which critical literacy is embedded, as a model of good practice; and that the critical literacy practices which the participants in this research study have developed are shared more widely with other practitioners attempting to make sense of critical literacy. I conclude with a final reflection on access and power as they relate to this research study and to the wider issue of 'the important skills of critical literacy'

Tony Hawk Pro Skater

Looking back on life there are so many memories that have truly made a lasting impact, these can include different vacations, accomplishments, and family, but have you ever had one that included a game or video game? From my personal experience, Tony Hawk Pro Skater has been one of those memories for me from childhood and now as an adult. Tony Hawk Pro Skater was a key part of my enjoyment and leisure as a child while also providing me with memories of time spent with my older brothers. In this paper, we will be highlighting the different elements of the game as well as sharing my personal account of the game as a child and as an adult. The key areas we will be discussing and talking about include graphics, audio/music, MDA (mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics), and the original vs. the updated version of the game

A Composite Genome Approach to Identify Phylogenetically Informative Data from Next-Generation Sequencing

We have developed a novel method to rapidly obtain homologous genomic data for phylogenetics directly from next-generation sequencing reads without the use of a reference genome. This software, called SISRS, avoids the time consuming steps of de novo whole genome assembly, genome-genome alignment, and annotation. For simulations SISRS is able to identify large numbers of loci containing variable sites with phylogenetic signal. For genomic data from apes, SISRS identified thousands of variable sites, from which we produced an accurate phylogeny. Finally, we used SISRS to identify phylogenetic markers that we used to estimate the phylogeny of placental mammals. We recovered phylogenies from multiple datasets that were consistent with previous conflicting estimates of the relationships among mammals. SISRS is open source and freely available at https://github.com/rachelss/SISRS.Comment: 12 pages plus36 figures, 1 supplementary table, 3 supplementary figure

Advancing an LGBTI inclusive curriculum in Scotland through critical literacy

Following the announcement, in November 2018, that Scotland would be the first educational system to introduce an LGBTI-inclusive curriculum in all of its state schools, this position paper advocates critical literacy as a theoretically congruent framework within which LGBTI issues can be explored. We suggest educators could do this by problematising social structures and language practices including our own professional actions beyond what we teach, and by using children’s literature to actively teach LGBTI issues and to open up spaces for discussion of these issues across curricular areas. What we propose is challenging in a Scottish educational context since Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) presents critical literacy as ‘finding and using information’, and it is not grounded in any wider theoretical basis, effectively removing the active, challenging and transformative aspects of critical literacy pedagogies. As Vasquez et al. argue, one of the key ways for teachers to engage with critical literacy is through the literature on its implementation in different contexts; in this position paper we hope to provide both a theoretical framework and practice accounts of LGBTI education from the wider literature to inform the development of an LGBTI-inclusive curriculum in Scotland and elsewhere

Peer Mentoring in an Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Program: Student Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on education. During this time, educators were tasked to develop creative and new ways to engage and teach students. Mentoring has been shown to positively impact academic and psychosocial outcomes and can enhance clinical skills in both in-person and e-learning environments. However, there is need for further research on peer mentoring programs in occupational therapy curriculum. Method: This retrospective qualitative study investigates the effects of peer mentoring on student perceptions of learning and professional development. Experiences were tracked for three semesters during the pandemic at an accredited entry-level occupational therapy program in the US. The students answered two to three questions at the end of each semester; qualitative analysis followed. Results: Twenty-six to 28 students consented each semester. Positive experiences, improved communication, and professional skills were reported. Most of the students felt peer mentoring enhanced learning, reduced stress, and fostered comradery. Collaborative partnership was preferred, and the students often asked for more structured faculty support. Discussion: The results are consistent with current evidence and confirm use of mentoring in entry-level occupational therapy programs may be beneficial even in adapted learning environments. This study gives insight to learning during a global pandemic and provides guidance for post pandemic pedagogical design

Non-Molecular-Clock-Like Evolution following Viral Origins in Homo sapiens

Researchers routinely adopt molecular clock assumptions in conducting sequence analyses to estimate dates for viral origins in humans. We used computational methods to examine the extent to which this practice can result in inaccurate ‘retrodiction.’ Failing to account for dynamic molecular evolution can affect greatly estimating index case dates, resulting in an overestimated age for the SARS-CoV-human infection, for instance

Development of Prognosis in Palliative care Study (PiPS) predictor models to improve prognostication in advanced cancer: prospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE: To develop a novel prognostic indicator for use in patients with advanced cancer that is significantly better than clinicians' estimates of survival. DESIGN: Prospective multicentre observational cohort study. SETTING: 18 palliative care services in the UK (including hospices, hospital support teams, and community teams). PARTICIPANTS: 1018 patients with locally advanced or metastatic cancer, no longer being treated for cancer, and recently referred to palliative care services. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Performance of a composite model to predict whether patients were likely to survive for "days" (0-13 days), "weeks" (14-55 days), or "months+" (>55 days), compared with actual survival and clinicians' predictions. RESULTS: On multivariate analysis, 11 core variables (pulse rate, general health status, mental test score, performance status, presence of anorexia, presence of any site of metastatic disease, presence of liver metastases, C reactive protein, white blood count, platelet count, and urea) independently predicted both two week and two month survival. Four variables had prognostic significance only for two week survival (dyspnoea, dysphagia, bone metastases, and alanine transaminase), and eight variables had prognostic significance only for two month survival (primary breast cancer, male genital cancer, tiredness, loss of weight, lymphocyte count, neutrophil count, alkaline phosphatase, and albumin). Separate prognostic models were created for patients without (PiPS-A) or with (PiPS-B) blood results. The area under the curve for all models varied between 0.79 and 0.86. Absolute agreement between actual survival and PiPS predictions was 57.3% (after correction for over-optimism). The median survival across the PiPS-A categories was 5, 33, and 92 days and survival across PiPS-B categories was 7, 32, and 100.5 days. All models performed as well as, or better than, clinicians' estimates of survival. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with advanced cancer no longer being treated, a combination of clinical and laboratory variables can reliably predict two week and two month survival