Supporting Sense of School Belonging for Primary School Children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs: The Views and Perspectives of Teaching Staff.

There is a wealth of research evidencing that feeling a sense of belonging at school is important and necessary. However, research suggests that one in four students do not feel that they belong at school whist children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) are more vulnerable to disliking school and experiencing rejection. This two phase project addressed a gap in the literature to explore why children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs are less likely than their peers to experience a sense of school belonging and consider what contributes to their school belonging. Within the first phase, a systematic literature review was conducted exploring how children and young people with SEN experience school belonging and what they identify as contributing to their sense of school belonging. 14 studies were included in a narrative synthesis. The findings highlighted that children with SEN appear to need more support in building school belonging than their peers. Multiple factors appear important to building school belonging, however interpersonal relationships was a dominant theme in what children and young people with SEN identify as supporting their sense of belonging at school. The review also suggested that children and young people with needs that could be described as SEMH are amongst the most vulnerable to not experiencing a sense of school belonging. This suggests that attention is warranted to explore how to promote these children and young people’s connections and relationships at school to help develop their sense of school belonging. In light of the findings within phase one, the second phase focused on how to enhance children with SEMH needs’ sense of school belonging. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 primary school classroom teachers and Teaching Assistants (TA). The interviews explored participants’ experiences of supporting children with SEMH needs and gathered their views on how to develop school belonging for the children they work with. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings suggested both differences and similarities in how teachers and TAs describe their experiences of supporting SEMH. Both groups of participants highlight that it is an emotive experience including both rewarding highs and challenging lows. There was further a sense that both teachers and TAs felt unsure and inexperienced when supporting social and emotional needs. These findings suggest that mainstream teaching staff could benefit from more support to cope with this aspect of their role in addition to giving them more knowledge about SEMH and what would help. Findings also suggested participants did not view SEMH to be a clear area to understand, there was a sense that it is a broad and wide area encompassing many different aspects. Findings further suggested that participants valued school belonging and considered it a priority. The research highlighted multiple ways to enhance school belonging for children with SEMH needs. Themes included having supportive relationships with adults, valuing children’s strengths, listening to the child, developing secure peer relationships and a school ethos emphasising wellbeing. The present research also explored the barriers children with SEMH needs face in developing school belonging. Findings suggested a range of reasons children with SEMH may find experiencing school belonging difficult. In particular, difficulties forming friendships and being excluded from the classroom were emphasised as key barriers to school belonging

New H_(2)O masers in Seyfert and FIR bright galaxies: III. The southern sample

Context. A relationship between the water maser detection rate and far infrared (FIR) flux densities was established as a result of two 22 GHz maser surveys in a complete sample of galaxies (Dec > −30°) with flux densities of >50 Jy and >30 Jy. Aims. We attempted to discover new maser sources and investigate the galaxies hosting the maser spots by extending previous surveys to southern galaxies with particular emphasis on the study of their nuclear regions. Methods. A sample of 12 galaxies with Dec 50 Jy was observed with the 70-m telescope of the Canberra deep space communication complex (CDSCC) at Tidbinbilla (Australia) in a search for water maser emission. The average 3σ noise level of the survey was 15 mJy for a 0.42 km s^(−1) channel, corresponding to a detection threshold of ∼0.1 L_☉ for the isotropic maser luminosity at a distance of 25 Mpc. Results. Two new detections are reported: a kilomaser with an isotropic luminosity L_(H_(2)O) ~ 5 L_☉ in NGC 3620 and a maser with about twice this luminosity in the merger system NGC 3256. The detections have been followed-up by continuum and spectral line interferometric observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). In NGC 3256, a fraction (about a third) of the maser emission originates in two hot spots associated with star formation activity, which are offset from the galactic nuclei of the system. The remaining emission may originate in weaker centres of maser activity distributed over the central 50". For NGC 3620, the water maser is coincident with the nuclear region of the galaxy. Our continuum observations indicate that the nature of the nuclear emission is probably linked to particularly intense star formation. Including the historical detection in NGC 4945, the water maser detection rate in the southern sample is 15% (3/20), consistent with the northern sample. The high rate of maser detections in the complete all-sky FIR sample (23%, 15/65) confirms the existence of a link between overall FIR flux density and maser phenomena. A relation between H_(2)O and OH masers in the FIR sample is also discussed

Signal quality measures for unsupervised blood pressure measurement

Accurate systolic and diastolic pressure estimation, using automated blood pressure measurement, is difficult to achieve when the transduced signals are contaminated with noise or interference, such as movement artifact. This study presents an algorithm for automated signal quality assessment in blood pressure measurement by determining the feasibility of accurately detecting systolic and diastolic pressures when corrupted with various levels of movement artifact. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared to a manually annotated reference scoring (RS). Based on visual representations and audible playback of Korotkoff sounds, the creation of the RS involved two experts identifying sections of the recorded sounds and annotating sections of noise contamination. The experts determined the systolic and diastolic pressure in 100 recorded Korotkoff sound recordings, using a simultaneous electrocardiograph as a reference signal. The recorded Korotkoff sounds were acquired from 25 healthy subjects (16 men and 9 women) with a total of four measurements per subject. Two of these measurements contained purposely induced noise artifact caused by subject movement. Morphological changes in the cuff pressure signal and the width of the Korotkoff pulse were extracted features which were believed to be correlated with the noise presence in the recorded Korotkoff sounds. Verification of reliable Korotkoff pulses was also performed using extracted features from the oscillometric waveform as recorded from the inflatable cuff. The time between an identified noise section and a verified Korotkoff pulse was the key feature used to determine the validity of possible systolic and diastolic pressures in noise contaminated Korotkoff sounds. The performance of the algorithm was assessed based on the ability to: verify if a signal was contaminated with any noise; the accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of this noise classification, and the systolic and diastolic pressure differences between the result obtained from the algorithm and the RS. 90% of the actual noise contaminated signals were correctly identified, and a sample-wise accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 97.0%, 80.61% and 98.16%, respectively, were obtained from 100 pooled signals. The mean systolic and diastolic differences were 0.37 ± 3.31 and 3.10 ± 5.46 mmHg, respectively, when the artifact detection algorithm was utilized, with the algorithm correctly determined if the signal was clean enough to attempt an estimation of systolic or diastolic pressures in 93% of blood pressure measurements

Space VLBI Observations of 3C 279 at 1.6 and 5 GHz

We present the first VLBI Space Observatory Programme (VSOP) observations of the gamma-ray blazar 3C 279 at 1.6 and 5 GHz. The combination of the VSOP and VLBA-only images at these two frequencies maps the jet structure on scales from 1 to 100 mas. On small angular scales the structure is dominated by the quasar core and the bright secondary component `C4' located 3 milliarcseconds from the core (at this epoch). On larger angular scales the structure is dominated by a jet extending to the southwest, which at the largest scale seen in these images connects with the smallest scale structure seen in VLA images. We have exploited two of the main strengths of VSOP: the ability to obtain matched-resolution images to ground-based images at higher frequencies and the ability to measure high brightness temperatures. A spectral index map was made by combining the VSOP 1.6 GHz image with a matched-resolution VLBA-only image at 5 GHz from our VSOP observation on the following day. The spectral index map shows the core to have a highly inverted spectrum, with some areas having a spectral index approaching the limiting value for synchrotron self-absorbed radiation of 2.5. Gaussian model fits to the VSOP visibilities revealed high brightness temperatures (>10^{12} K) that are difficult to measure with ground-only arrays. An extensive error analysis was performed on the brightness temperature measurements. Most components did not have measurable brightness temperature upper limits, but lower limits were measured as high as 5x10^{12} K. This lower limit is significantly above both the nominal inverse Compton and equipartition brightness temperature limits. The derived Doppler factor, Lorentz factor, and angle to the line-of-sight in the case of the equipartition limit are at the upper end of the range of expected values for EGRET blazars.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, emulateapj.sty, To be published in The Astrophysical Journal, v537, Jul 1, 200

Individualisation of time-motion analysis : a method comparison and case report series

© Georg Thieme Verlag KG. This study compared the intensity distribution of time-motion analysis data, when speed zones were categorized by different methods. 12 U18 players undertook a routine battery of laboratory- and field-based assessments to determine their running speed corresponding to the respiratory compensation threshold (RCT), maximal aerobic speed (MAS), maximal oxygen consumption (vVO 2max ) and maximal sprint speed (MSS). Players match-demands were tracked using 5 Hz GPS units in 22 fixtures (50 eligible match observations). The percentage of total distance covered running at high-speed (%HSR), very-high speed (%VHSR) and sprinting were determined using the following speed thresholds: 1) arbitrary; 2) individualised (IND) using RCT, vVO 2max and MSS; 3) individualised via MAS per se; 4) individualised via MSS per se; and 5) individualised using MAS and MSS as measures of locomotor capacities (LOCO). Using MSS in isolation resulted in 61 % and 39 % of player's % HSR and % VHSR, respectively, being incorrectly interpreted, when compared to the IND technique. Estimating the RCT from fractional values of MAS resulted in erroneous interpretations of % HSR in 50 % of cases. The present results suggest that practitioners and researchers should avoid using singular fitness characteristics to individualise the intensity distribution of time-motion analysis data. A combination of players' anaerobic threshold, MAS, and MSS characteristics are recommended to individualise player-tracking data

High Resolution VSOP Imaging of a Southern Blazar PKS 1921-293 at 1.6 GHz

We present a high resolution 1.6 GHz VSOP image of the southern blazar PKS 1921-293. The image shows a typical core-jet morphology, consistent with ground-based VLBI images. However, the addition of data from the space antenna has greatly improved the angular resolution (especially along the north-south direction for this source), and thus allowed us to clearly identify the core. Model fitting reveals an inner jet component ~1.5 mas north of the core. This jet feature may be moving on a common curved path connecting the jet within a few parsecs to the 10-parsec-scale jet. The compact core has a brightness temperature of 2.6*10**12 K (in the rest frame of the quasar), an indication of relativistic beaming. We analyzed the source in terms of three models, involving the inverse Compton catastrophe, an inhomogeneous relativistic jet, and the equipartition of energy between the radiating particles and the magnetic field. Our analysis of this gamma-ray-quiet blazar shows no preference to any particular one of these models.Comment: 7 pages including 2 figures and 1 table, PASJLaTeX, accepted for publication in PAS

Are shadows only coarsely processed? Exploring depth discrimination with cast shadow cue conflicts across spatial frequency

Shape-from-shading is a ubiquitous cue informing object identification and depth judgements. Cast-shadows contribute towards these judgements (see Mammassian, Knill and Kersten, 1998). A number of studies have reported that search-times for inconsistent shadows vary according to whether the scene is presented as-if illuminated from above or below. Though the direction of these inhomogeneities is sometimes contested (see Rensink and Cavanagh, 2004 and Lovell et al, 2009). Lovell et. al. posit that the processing of shadows is handled by coarse-scale processes, but only in light-from-above presentations. The current study explores depth discrimination judgements informed by cast shadows. We create stimuli featuring a pair of floating discs, casting shadows onto a fronto-parallel surface. Participants were asked to identify the disc protruding the most towards them. One disc featured a cast-shadow with a cue-conflict, where low and high spatial-frequency components conveyed different depth information. This allowed us to estimate the weight assigned to the different cues when depth discrimination judgements were made. Firstly, we find that depth judgements consistently reflected the coarse-scale cues, fine-scale cues were largely ignored. Secondly, we found only small differences in the cue weightings for stimuli presented as-if light were above or below. The latter result is perplexing as previous studies have shown a difference between light-from-above and below conditions. We speculate that this difference reflects the task undertaken, i.e. discriminating depths rather than searching for odd shadows