Preparing student teachers for the inclusion of autistic learners in the Further Education sector

This research aimed to explore student teachers’ perceptions, experiences, and attitudes towards the inclusion of autistic learners within the post-compulsory sector. Adopting an ethics of care approach, this research was conducted with ten student teachers in a large college in North-East England. Participants were student teachers enrolled in a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) for Further Education. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and thematically analysed. Student teachers reported various experiences of teaching autistic learners from no experience at all to placements in autism specific provisions. The participants’ understanding of autism was varied and based on both personal and professional experiences prior to starting the PGCE and whilst studying the programme. The analysis indicated that although student teachers were positive in their attitude towards inclusion, they had some concerns over their ability to include autistic learners. This study highlights the importance of care and relationships in supporting the inclusion of autistic learners. A caring pedagogy with a focus on inclusion could help to address inequalities of access to education and bring about fairer educational success for autistic learners

Evaluation of AMSTAR to assess the methodological quality of systematic reviews in overviews of reviews of healthcare interventions

Abstract Background Overviews of reviews (overviews) compile information from multiple systematic reviews (SRs) to provide a single synthesis of relevant evidence for decision-making. It is recommended that authors assess and report the methodological quality of SRs in overviews—for example, using A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews (AMSTAR). Currently, there is variation in whether and how overview authors assess and report SR quality, and limited guidance is available. Our objectives were to: examine methodological considerations involved in using AMSTAR to assess the quality of Cochrane and non-Cochrane SRs in overviews of healthcare interventions; identify challenges (and develop potential decision rules) when using AMSTAR in overviews; and examine the potential impact of considering methodological quality when making inclusion decisions in overviews. Methods We selected seven overviews of healthcare interventions and included all SRs meeting each overview’s inclusion criteria. For each SR, two reviewers independently conducted AMSTAR assessments with consensus and discussed challenges encountered. We also examined the correlation between AMSTAR assessments and SR results/conclusions. Results Ninety-five SRs were included (30 Cochrane, 65 non-Cochrane). Mean AMSTAR assessments (9.6/11 vs. 5.5/11; p < 0.001) and inter-rater reliability (AC1 statistic: 0.84 vs. 0.69; “almost perfect” vs. “substantial” using the Landis & Koch criteria) were higher for Cochrane compared to non-Cochrane SRs. Four challenges were identified when applying AMSTAR in overviews: the scope of the SRs and overviews often differed; SRs examining similar topics sometimes made different methodological decisions; reporting of non-Cochrane SRs was sometimes poor; and some non-Cochrane SRs included other SRs as well as primary studies. Decision rules were developed to address each challenge. We found no evidence that AMSTAR assessments were correlated with SR results/conclusions. Conclusions Results indicate that the AMSTAR tool can be used successfully in overviews that include Cochrane and non-Cochrane SRs, though decision rules may be useful to circumvent common challenges. Findings support existing recommendations that quality assessments of SRs in overviews be conducted independently, in duplicate, with a process for consensus. Results also suggest that using methodological quality to guide inclusion decisions (e.g., to exclude poorly conducted and reported SRs) may not introduce bias into the overview process

Is Initial Teacher Education (ITE) based on the capabilities approach likely to foster inclusion for autistic learners in the further education sector?

This discussion will argue that Initial Teacher Education (ITE) for students planning to teach in Further Education (FE), which includes schools, colleges and training providers for learners aged 14+, should be revised to encourage ITE students to view their own approach to inclusion through the framework of American philosopher Nussbaum’s Capability Approach (CA). Autistic people are more likely than their peers with more profound physical and cognitive disabilities to go to mainstream school. These learners are often misunderstood and excluded from school due to a lack of understanding amongst professional teaching staff and as a result are at an increased risk of exclusion from school. Exclusion from education leads to exclusion from society, impacting life chances, dignity, self-esteem and mental health. Grounded in human dignity, the CA will provide a framework for exploring inclusion of autistic learners within initial teacher education (ITE) and will be a preferable future for moving towards a more inclusive society

An exploration of student teachers’ perceptions, experiences, and attitudes towards the inclusion of autistic learners

This research aimed to explore student teachers’ perceptions, experiences, and attitudes towards the inclusion of autistic learners. Adopting an ethics of care approach, this research was conducted with ten student teachers in a large college in North-East England. Participants (student teachers) were enrolled in a PGCE within the postcompulsory education sector. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and thematically analysed using Braun & Clarke’s (2006) framework. The analysis indicated that although student teachers were positive in their attitude towards inclusion, they had some concerns over their ability to include autistic learners. The main external factors impacting inclusive practice with respect to autistic learners, identified by participants were time, resources, and support. The recommendations do not address the external factors impacting inclusive practice with respect to autistic learners, for example, time, which cannot be solved through initial teacher education, however, there are changes that can be made to ITE programmes. The key recommendations from this study are the introduction of autistic guest speakers on the PGCE programme and collaboration with autistic people to develop its curriculum content to support future teachers feeling prepared to include autistic learners. Enhanced opportunities to interact with autistic learners through peer observations and further collaboration with mentors to support inclusive practice is also proposed through the development of Communities of Practice (CoP)

Certified Computation from Unreliable Datasets

A wide range of learning tasks require human input in labeling massive data. The collected data though are usually low quality and contain inaccuracies and errors. As a result, modern science and business face the problem of learning from unreliable data sets. In this work, we provide a generic approach that is based on \textit{verification} of only few records of the data set to guarantee high quality learning outcomes for various optimization objectives. Our method, identifies small sets of critical records and verifies their validity. We show that many problems only need $\text{poly}(1/\varepsilon)$ verifications, to ensure that the output of the computation is at most a factor of $(1 \pm \varepsilon)$ away from the truth. For any given instance, we provide an \textit{instance optimal} solution that verifies the minimum possible number of records to approximately certify correctness. Then using this instance optimal formulation of the problem we prove our main result: "every function that satisfies some Lipschitz continuity condition can be certified with a small number of verifications". We show that the required Lipschitz continuity condition is satisfied even by some NP-complete problems, which illustrates the generality and importance of this theorem. In case this certification step fails, an invalid record will be identified. Removing these records and repeating until success, guarantees that the result will be accurate and will depend only on the verified records. Surprisingly, as we show, for several computation tasks more efficient methods are possible. These methods always guarantee that the produced result is not affected by the invalid records, since any invalid record that affects the output will be detected and verified

Protective effects of the thioredoxin and glutaredoxin systems in dopamine-induced cell death

Although the etiology of sporadic Parkinson disease (PD) is unknown, it is well established that oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenic mechanism. The thioredoxin (Trx) and glutaredoxin (Grx) systems are two central systems upholding the sulfhydryl homeostasis by reducing disulfides and mixed disulfides within the cell and thereby protecting against oxidative stress. By examining the expression of redox proteins in human postmortem PD brains, we found the levels of Trx1 and thioredoxin reductase 1 (TrxR1) to be significantly decreased. The human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans were used as model systems to explore the potential protective effects of the redox proteins against 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced cytotoxicity. 6-OHDA is highly prone to oxidation, resulting in the formation of the quinone of 6-OHDA, a highly reactive species and powerful neurotoxin. Treatment of human cells with 6-OHDA resulted in an increased expression of Trx1, TrxR1, Grx1, and Grx2, and small interfering RNA for these genes significantly increased the cytotoxic effects exerted by the 6-OHDA neurotoxin. Evaluation of the dopaminergic neurons in C. elegans revealed that nematodes lacking trxr-1 were significantly more sensitive to 6-OHDA, with significantly increased neuronal degradation. Importantly, both the Trx and the Grx systems were also found to directly mediate reduction of the 6-OHDA-quinone in vitro and thus render its cytotoxic effects. In conclusion, our results suggest that the two redox systems are important for neuronal survival in dopamine-induced cell death. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.A.P.F. was supported by Stiftelsen Lars Hiertas Minne and Karolinska Institutet research grants. Research in the Swoboda laboratory was supported by the Swedish Research Council (VR) and the NordForsk Nordic network for C. elegans research. A.M.-V. was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Projects PI050065 and PI080557, cofinanced by the Fondo Social Europeo, FEDER) and Junta de Andalucía (Projects P07-CVI-02697 and P08-CVI-03629), Spain. Some C. elegans strains were provided by the CGC, which is funded by the NIH Office of Research Infrastructure Programs (P40 OD010440).Peer Reviewe

A case series analysis of dental extractions’ outcome in cats with chronic gingivostomatitis carrying retroviral disease

Research Areas: Agriculture ; Veterinary Sciences ; ZoologyThis study aims to evaluate and compare the clinical outcome after dental extractions of cats with FCGS infected with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and feline leukaemia virus (FeLV). A retrospective case series included cats with diagnosis of FCGS, availability of detailed clinical records, full-mouth dental radiographs, and retroviral disease test results. Effectiveness of surgical treatment (EOT) was registered. Three groups were defined: control, FIV and FeLV. In this study, 111 cats were included: 60 controls, 29 FIV- and 22 FeLV-positive cats. When compared with control cases, FeLV-positive cats had significantly less proliferative stomatitis lesions, and they tended to have more lingual ulcers. Concurrently, FeLV-positive cats had significantly less tooth resorptive lesions. No other significant differences in FCGS clinical signs were found between groups. FeLV-positive cats had a significantly worse outcome after dental extractions compared to the other groups. In fact, FeLV-positive cats had 7.5 times more chances of having no improvement after dental extractions. This study concludes that the response to dental extractions in FeLV-positive cats is significantly worse, when comparing to cats that do not carry retroviral disease. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge the effect of FeLV status on the prognosis of these cats.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O turismo como regenerador da sua memória e identidade

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Arquitetura, com a especialização em Arquitetura apresentada na Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre.Em contexto de escassos recursos económicos, o património construído é recorrentemente transferido para segundo plano na escala das prioridades, não sendo considerado o seu potencial enquanto catalisador para o desenvolvimento de um território. A presente investigação tem como intuito contribuir para a reflexão em torno do património e dos sucessivos contributos nele impressos. Apresentam-se como caso de estudo as Roças de São Tomé e Príncipe, estruturas agrícolas criadas essencialmente para culturas extensivas como o café e o cacau, que constituem relevantes assentamentos e elementos estruturantes deste arquipélago, analisando os desafios que enfrentam, bem como o seu potencial para o desenvolvimento da ilha. Apartir de uma análise do conjunto de roças do arquipélago, seleccionou-se a Roça Água Izé como objecto para um estudo mais aprofundado, dada a sua importância histórica - a semente de cacau foi introduzida na ilha pelo Barão de Água Izé - e a sua qualidade arquitectónica. O programa base passa por entender os factos urbanos deste território, assentando na requalificação do sistema urbano da Roça e na regeneração do património. Assim, a discussão global em torno do património tende não só a abranger temas mais alargados, mas principalmente a aproximar-se mais da sociedade civil, das suas necessidades contemporâneas e aspirações futuras, num entendimento o património não só como peça de relevante valor simbólico, mas também enquanto catalisador funcional, social e económico.ABSTRACT: In the context of scarce economic resources, the heritage that was built is often taken as a second plan on the scale of priorities, taking away its potential as a catalyst for the development of a territory. The present investigation aims to contribute to the reflection around the heritage and the following contributions printed on it. Here is presented as a case study the Roças of São Tomé and Príncipe, agricultural structures created essentially for extensive crops such as coffee and cocoa, that are important settlements and structuring elements of this archipelago, who analyse the challenges they face, as well as their potential for the development of the island. After an analysis of all the Roças of the archipelago, the Roça Água Izé was selected as a subject for a more in-depth study, given its historical importance - the cocoa seed was introduced on the island by the Água Izé Baroon - and its architectural quality. The base program is to understand the urban facts of this territory, based on the requalification of the urban system of Roça and the regeneration of the heritage. Thus, the global discussion arround heritage tends not only to cover broader topics, but rather to be closer to civil society, its contemporary needs and future aspirations, in an understanding of heritage not only as a piece of relevant symbolic value, but also as a functional, social and economic catalyst.N/

Optimização da separação de compostos orgânicos

Mestrado em Engenharia QuímicaOs processos químicos industriais podem gerar sub-produtos que têm de ser destruídos o que, associado a uma série de desvantagens económicas e ambientais, torna de extrema importância a possibilidade de recuperação destes sub-produtos. O presente trabalho propõe-se estudar a viabilidade do aproveitamento de uma corrente de efluente, resultante do processo de produção de anilina, através da destilação, de acordo com determinadas especificações pretendidas. A recuperação de ciclohexilamina (CHA) e ciclohexanol (CHOL) desta corrente pressupõe a utilização de uma sequência de três colunas de destilação. Com o fim de determinar a melhor das três sequências em estudo, recorreu-se a um programa de simulação, o Aspen. Deste estudo concluiu-se que a sequência ideal, para este caso, é a que permite a remoção da água e do benzeno, do CHA e do CHOL sucessivamente pelo topo das três colunas, pois apresenta os menores custos totais (83.777€/ano). Para esta sequência ideal, construiu-se o diagrama de Processo e Instrumentação (P&I) e dimensionaram-se os permutadores de calor associados a cada coluna. Por fim, foi efectuado um estudo da viabilidade económica do projecto em causa, onde se obtiveram os valores para os parâmetros essenciais a este estudo, nomeadamente o valor actual líquido, VAL (327.475€) e a taxa de rentabilidade, TIR (36,6%). Estes valores permitiram concluir que a sequência seleccionada é considerada economicamente viável e rentável. O objectivo deste trabalho foi portanto atingido com sucesso reforçando, assim, o interesse da recuperação destes produtos como alternativa, por exemplo, à incineração. ABSTRACT: Industrial chemical processes often generate sub products that have to be disposed of before discharging any effluent into the environment. The associated economic and environmental disadvantages show the importance of recovering these compounds from these effluents. This work is aimed at performing a feasibility study for the valorization of an aniline production effluent according to a particular set of desired specifications for the end products. The recovery of cyclohexylamine and cyclohexanol from this effluent can be accomplished by using different distillation columns cascades, according to the mixture components properties. The choice of most economical cascade was made by using a simulation program, Aspen Plus. This choice was based on the total costs of each cascade (the sum of investment and operation costs). The cascade where water and benzene, ciclohexylamine and cyclohexanol are sequentially recovered as distillates from the three columns was selected since it leads to the lowest total cost (83.777€/year) of the three different cascades that were studied. For this optimal cascade a Process and Instrumentation diagram (P&I) was developed as well as the design of the heat transfer apparatus for each column. Finally the project was submitted to an economical feasibility study where its main cost indicators were determined, such as the Net Present Value, NPV (327.475€) and the Internal Rate of Return, IRR (36,6%). These values show that the selected cascade is profitable and economically viable. The main purpose of this essay was successfully attained reinforcing the interest in the recovery of these products as an alternative to their destruction

An evaluation of harvest plots to display results of meta-analyses in overviews of reviews: a cross-sectional study

Survey for Acute Otitis Media. (PDF 63 kb