Butting Heads: Tackling Football Concussion and Prevention

Hundreds of thousands of sports concussions occur each year in the United States, and almost half of them are the result of a football injury. Even though they may not initially appear serious, concussions can lead to extreme cognitive impairments in those affected. This article highlights the importance of treating concussions properly and educating coaches, parents, and athletes on the value of allowing young athletes to take the time they need to fully recover

A degree of employability: a research agenda towards curricula design

The challenge of providing commercial science and technology skills in an academic environment stimulates considerable debate, with industry suggesting it cannot be done. In investigating enhancing employability skills of STEM graduates many institutions are considering new initiatives and policies. This research works towards developing models to change practice in curriculum design by embedding industry frameworks. The application of SFIA in course design intends to improve the student journey from undergraduate to graduate to employee by incorporating skills and language required by professionals, into the heart of HE curricula. The paper reflects the efforts to meet these goals and sets out an agenda for research to identify the impact of the approach. A key deliverable is a transferable model for the development of fit-for-purpose academic curricula in HEIs, fully aligned with industry requirements and needs. The research progresses to clarify the impact and effectiveness of this approach

Teachers at faith schools in England and Wales : state of research

This study begins by distinguishing between three kinds of ‘faith schools’ (known as schools with a religious character) within England and Wales: faith schools that operate within the state-maintained sector and had their origin in voluntary church-related initiatives prior to the Education Act 1870; ‘traditional’ independent faith schools, many of which had their roots in or before the nineteenth century; and ‘new’ independent faith schools, particularly Christian and Muslim schools, following the Rochester initiative in 1969. Second, this study draws attention to and summarises a quantitative research tradition established in 1982 concerned with identifying the attitudes and values of teachers working specifically within Anglican faith schools within the state-maintained sector, and with modelling the influence of personal and religious factors in shaping their attitudes. Third, this study reanalyses a new database profiling the views of subject leaders in religious education across a broad range of primary schools with a religious character in England. These new analyses demonstrate the different priorities given to different aims of religious education by teachers in this sector, and illustrates the relative influence of personal factors (age, sex and church attendance), professional factors (years teaching, qualifications, and continuing professional development) and contextual factors (type of school)

The relationship between denominational affiliation and spiritual health among weekly-churchgoing 13- to 15-year-old adolescents in England and Wales

THIS PAPER DRAWS on John Fisher’s formative definition of spiritual health as comprising good relationships within four domains (the personal, the communal, the environmental and the transcendental) and uses the operationalization of these constructs proposed by Francis and Robbins (2005). Comparisons are made between the responses of five groups of 13- to 15-year-olds who report weekly church attendance: 1,549 Anglicans, 1,458 Roman Catholics, 830 members of one of the Free Churches, 212 members of one of the Pentecostal churches, and 212 Jehovah’s Witnesses. The data demonstrate significant variations in the levels of spiritual health reported by weekly churchgoers according to denominational affiliation. The conclusion is drawn that denominational affiliation needs to be taken into account alongside frequency of church attendance in constructing a view of the relationship between Christian practice and spiritual health during the adolescent years

Still worlds apart: The worldviews of adolescent males attending Protestant and Catholic secondary schools in Northern Ireland

This study draws together two research traditions: John Greer's pioneering research among pupils in Protestant and Catholic schools in Northern Ireland and Leslie J. Francis's research concerning teenage religion and values in England and Wales. A sample of 1,585 13- to 15-year-old male pupils attending Catholic schools (n = 712) and Protestant schools (n = 873) completed the Teenage Religion and Values Survey. The present analyses highlight the significant differences in world views between the Catholic and Protestant adolescents across eight domains defined as: religious beliefs, paranormal beliefs, church-related attitudes, attitudes toward sex and family life, law-related attitudes, school-related attitudes, locality-related attitudes, and personal anxiety and depression. These data confirm that in many key ways young people growing up in these two religious communities are still living worlds apart

Breast cancer in Malta : a comparative study between the year 2000 and 2010

Introduction: During the last decade, Malta experienced the introduction of a number of programmes and initiatives aiming to raise risk and cancer awareness on breast cancer. The aim of this retrospective study was to assess whether the rise in breast cancer awareness influenced the presentation pattern of breast cancer in Malta. Method: The patients’ records operated for breast cancer in the year 2000 and 2010 were reviewed after sourcing the list from the Pathology Department at Mater Dei Hospital. For each case demographics, laterality, surgical procedure, histology of tumour, largest histological tumour dimension, differentiation and nodal status were collected. Results: 456 patients were studied; 171 for the year 2000 and 285 for the year 2010. Median age was 64 years (range 23-91 years) in 2000 and 59 years (range 29-96 years) in 2010. Lumpectomy or wide local excision were carried out in 41.0% of patients in 2000 and 64.7% in 2010. Mastectomy was done in 49.7% of patients in 2000 and 27.1% in 2010. Invasive ductal carcinoma of the unspecified type was the most common histological tumour in both years (68.8% in 2000, 74.7% in 2010). Peak incidence for the histological tumour dimension shifted from pT2 in 2000 to pT1c in 2010. Mean tumour size of the invasive type decreased from 28.2mm in the year 2000, to 22.9mm in the year 2010 (p value = 0.007). Histological regional lymph node metastases decreased from 52.2% in 2000 to 45.0% in 2010. Conclusion: Our study shows a trend of decrease in tumour size, less axillary node metastases and an increase in breast conservation surgery. Current initiatives and programmes appear to be effective at increasing breast cancer awareness.peer-reviewe

Prayer, purpose in life, and attitudes toward substances: a study among 13- to 15-year-olds in England and Wales

This study set out to examine the association between prayer frequency, purpose in life and attitude toward substances, among a sample of 2,563 13- to 15-year-old secondary school pupils in England and Wales. Multivariate models controlling for sex, school year and personality (as defined by the Eysenkian dimensional model) demonstrated that higher levels of purpose in life are associated with greater prayer frequency, and that more proscriptive attitudes toward substances are associated with both higher levels of purpose in life and greater prayer frequency. These findings are consistent with a model suggesting that prayer frequency promotes a more negative view of substances both directly and indirectly through cultivating a greater sense of purpose in life