The association of cold weather and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in the island of Ireland between 1984 and 2007

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Background This study aimed to assess the relationship between cold temperature and daily mortality in the Republic of Ireland (ROI) and Northern Ireland (NI), and to explore any differences in the population responses between the two jurisdictions. Methods A time-stratified case-crossover approach was used to examine this relationship in two adult national populations, between 1984 and 2007. Daily mortality risk was examined in association with exposure to daily maximum temperatures on the same day and up to 6 weeks preceding death, during the winter (December-February) and cold period (October-March), using distributed lag models. Model stratification by age and gender assessed for modification of the cold weather-mortality relationship. Results In the ROI, the impact of cold weather in winter persisted up to 35 days, with a cumulative mortality increase for all-causes of 6.4% (95%CI=4.8%-7.9%) in relation to every 1oC drop in daily maximum temperature, similar increases for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke, and twice as much for respiratory causes. In NI, these associations were less pronounced for CVD causes, and overall extended up to 28 days. Effects of cold weather on mortality increased with age in both jurisdictions, and some suggestive gender differences were observed. Conclusions The study findings indicated strong cold weather-mortality associations in the island of Ireland; these effects were less persistent, and for CVD mortality, smaller in NI than in the ROI. Together with suggestive differences in associations by age and gender between the two Irish jurisdictions, the findings suggest potential contribution of underlying societal differences, and require further exploration. The evidence provided here will hope to contribute to the current efforts to modify fuel policy and reduce winter mortality in Ireland

'You were quiet - I did all the marching': Research processes involved in hearing the voices of South Asian girls

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website at the link below. Copyright @ 2011 A B Academic Publishers.This article provides insights into the outcomes of reflection following two interview approaches used to explore narratives of the lived, individual experiences of South-Asian girls living in West London. In attempting to illuminate and re-present the cultural experiences as told by these girls, the choice of interview approach became critical in allowing the voices to be effectively heard (Rogers, 2005). This article therefore considers how a semi-structured interview approach offered valuable insights into the girls' experiences but became constraining for both researcher and participant in unveiling the complexity and depth of their lives. These constraints emerged through reflection by both participants and researcher. As a result of reflexivity during the research process, the researcher moved towards the use of research conversations during the second phase of the study. Ultimately the study revealed how the girls felt empowered by the opportunity to narrate their individual experiences and tell of their lives. In narrating their reflections on being part of the research, there was a clear recognition that the process facilitated the articulation of new voices and ‘multi-voicedness’ (Moen, 2006

Eu(rope): (re)assembling, (re)casting and (re)aligning lines of de- and re-territorialisation of early childhood

The aim of this paper is to (re)(e)value(ate) current micro-and macropolicies and politics that shape – and are shaped by – conceptualisations of and, in consequence, practices towards young children in a range of institutions/figurations. The 'geopolitical' location for our investigation is Europe, understood as conceptual space(s) as well as (geographical) territory. Whilst we begin by focusing attention on events within an English context, we nevertheless move beyond geographical boundaries. We argue that movements that are currently being undertaken in England are not individual activities. Rather, England is infected and affected by European and global histories, practices, policies, philosophies and epistemologies. We argue that it is the oscillations between different components within a broad European assemblage (human and nonhuman) that makes something happen. Subsequently, we detail and question whether 'happenings' that are occurring in England can be considered as possible creative openings where early childhood education/care could be reassembled 'differently'. Once one steps outside what's been thought before . . . once one ventures outside what's familiar and reassuring, once one has to invent new concepts for unknown lands, then methods and moral systems break down and thinking becomes, as Foucault puts it, a ''perilous act'', a violence, whose first victim is oneself

The impact of the Great Exhibition of 1851 on the development of technical education during the second half of the nineteenth century

This paper examines the contribution made by the mechanics’ institute movement in Britain just prior to, and following, the opening of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. It argues that far from making little contribution to education, as often portrayed by historians, the movement was ideally positioned to respond to the findings of the Exhibition, which were that foreign goods on display were often more advanced than those produced in Britain. The paper highlights, through a regional study, how well suited mechanics’ institutes were in organising their own exhibitions, providing the idea of this first international exhibition. Subsequently, many offered nationally recognised technical subject examinations through relevant education as well as informing government commissions, prior to the passing of the Technical Instruction Acts in 1889 and the Local Taxation Act of 1890. These acts effectively put mechanics’ institutes into state ownership as the first step in developing further education for all in Britai

Experiences and Outcomes of Preschool Physical Education: an analysis of developmental discourses in Scottish curricular documentation

This article provides an analysis of developmental discourses underpinning preschool physical education in Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence. Implementing a post-structural perspective, the article examines the preschool experiences and outcomes related to physical education as presented in the Curriculum for Excellence ‘health and wellbeing’ documentation. The article interrogates the ways in which developmental discourses are evident throughout this and related documentation and how these discourses might ‘work’ to produce specific effects on practitioners and children as they are deployed and taken up in Scottish preschool education contexts. This analysis involves speculating about potential consequences for practitioners' and children's experiences and subjectivities. In conclusion, it is suggested that practitioners should critically engage with the curriculum, as uncritical acceptance of the discourses underpinning it could lead to practices that may have negative consequences. Furthermore, the article proposes that future research should investigate the ways in which the discourses privileged in the Curriculum for Excellence ‘health and wellbeing’ documentation are taken up and negotiated in Scottish preschool settings

Close encounters of a critical kind: a diffractive musing in/between new material feminism and object-oriented ontology

For a number of years, new material feminists have been developing new theoretical tools, new modes of conceptual analysis and new ethical frameworks. Object-oriented ontology, part of the speculative realism ‘movement’, has been engaged in something similar. Yet these endeavours have often taken place in ‘parallel universes’, despite sharing – or at least colliding around – a range of somewhat similar ontological and epistemological commitments. Composed as a diffractive musing encounter in which insights are read ‘through one another’ (Barad, 2007: 25) in order to ‘attend to … details and specificities of relations of difference and how they matter’ (Barad, 2007:71), the article brings Barad’s Meeting the Universe Halfway, already a ‘foundational’ text for new material feminism, into an encounter with a speculative realist text of the same ‘foundational’ status, Harman’s The Quadruple Object. The article develops a notion of diffractive musing as embodied, sensory struggle which instantiates intellectual generosity as a mode of critique. Following this, it puts diffractive musing to work theoretically via an encounter between object-oriented ontology and new material feminism. Keywords : new material feminism, speculative realism, diffraction, musing, critiqu

Oral medicine acceptance in infants and toddlers: measurement properties of the caregiver-administered Children’s acceptance tool (CareCAT)

BACKGROUND: Developing age-appropriate medications remains a challenge in particular for the population of infants and toddlers, as they are not able to reliably self-report if they would accept and consequently take an oral medicine. Therefore, it is common to use caregivers as proxies when assessing medicine acceptance. The outcome measures used in this research field differ and most importantly lack validation, implying a persisting gap in knowledge and controversy in the field. The newly developed Caregiver-administered Children’s Acceptance Tool (CareCAT) is based on a 5-point nominal scale, with descriptors of medication acceptance behavior. This crosssectional study assessed the measurement properties of the tool with regards to the user’s understanding and its intra- and inter-rater reliability. METHODS: Participating caregivers were enrolled at a primary healthcare facility where their children (median age 6 months) had been prescribed oral antibiotics. Caregivers, trained observers and the tool developer observed and scored on the CareCAT tool what behavior children exhibited when receiving the medicine (n = 104). The videorecords of this process served as replicate observations (n = 69). After using the tool caregivers were asked to explain their observations and the tool descriptors in their own words. The tool’s reliability was assessed by percentage agreement and Cohen’s unweighted kappa coefficients of agreement for nominal scales. RESULTS: The study found that caregivers using CareCAT had a satisfactory understanding of the tool’s descriptors. Using its dichotomized scores the tool reliably was strong for acceptance behavior (agreement inter-rater 84–88%, kappa 0.66–0.76; intra-rater 87–89%, kappa 0.68–0.72) and completeness of medicine ingestion (agreement inter-rater 82–86%, kappa 0.59–0.67; intra-rater 85–93%, kappa 0.50–0.70). CONCLUSIONS: The CareCAT is a low-cost, easy-to-use and reliable instrument, which is relevant to assess acceptance behavior and completeness of medicine ingestion, both of which are of significant importance for developing age-appropriate medications in infants and toddlers

Internationalisation and migrant academics: the hidden narratives of mobility

Internationalisation is a dominant policy discourse in higher education today. It is invariably presented as an ideologically neutral, coherent, disembodied, knowledgedriven policy intervention - an unconditional good. Yet it is a complex assemblage of values linked not only to economic growth and prosperity, but also to global citizenship, transnational identity capital, social cohesion, intercultural competencies and soft power (Clifford and Montgomery 2014; De Wit et al. 2015; Kim 2017; Lomer 2016; Stier 2004). Mobility is the sine qua non of the global academy (Sheller 2014). International movements, flows and networks are perceived as valuable transnational and transferable identity capital and as counterpoints to intellectual parochialism. Fluidity metaphors abound as an antidote to stasis e.g. flows, flux and circulations (Urry 2007). For some, internationalisation is conceptually linked to the political economy of neoliberalism and the spatial extension of the market, risking commodification and commercialisation (Matus and Talburt 2009). Others raise questions about what/whose knowledge is circulating and whether internationalisation is a form of re-colonisation and convergence that seeks to homogenise higher education systems (Stromquist 2007). Internationalisation policies and practices, it seems, are complex entanglements of economic, political, social and affective domains. They are mechanisms for driving the global knowledge 2 economy and the fulfilment of personal aspirations (Hoffman 2009). Academic geographical mobility is often conflated with social mobility and career advancement (Leung 2017). However, Robertson (2010: 646) suggested that ‘the romance of movement and mobility ought to be the first clue that this is something we ought to be particularly curious about.

Moderate alcohol consumption lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes: a meta-analysis of prospective observational studies

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Rosiglitazone and Myocardial Infarction in Patients Previously Prescribed Metformin

Objective: Rosiglitazone was found associated with approximately a 43% increase in risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in a two meta-analyses of clinical trials. Our objective is to estimate the magnitude of the association in real-world patients previously treated with metformin. Research Design and Methods: We conducted a nested case control study in British Columbia using health care databases on 4.3 million people. Our cohort consisted of 158,578 patients with Type 2 diabetes who used metformin as first-line drug treatment. We matched 2,244 cases of myocardial infarction (AMI) with up to 4 controls. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate matched odds ratios for AMI associated with treatment with rosiglitazone, pioglitazone and sulfonylureas. Results: In our cohort of prior metformin users, adding rosiglitazone for up to 6 months was not associated with an increased risk of AMI compared to adding a sulfonylurea (odds ratio [OR] 1.38; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.91–2.10), or compared to adding pioglitazone (OR for rosi versus pio 1.41; 95% CI, 0.74–2.66). There were also no significant differences between rosiglitazone, pioglitazone and sulfonylureas for longer durations of treatment. Though not significantly different from sulfonylureas, there was a transient increase in AMI risk associated with the first 6 months of treatment with a glitazone compared to not using the treatment (OR 1.53; 95% CI, 1.13–2.07) Conclusions: In our British Columbia cohort of patients who received metformin as first-line pharmacotherapy for Type 2 diabetes mellitus, further treatment with rosiglitazone did not increase the risk of AMI compared to patients who were treated with pioglitazone or a sulfonylurea. Though not statistically significantly different compared from each other, an increased risk of AMI observed after starting rosiglitazone or sulfonylureas is a matter of concern that requires more research