New evidence on Allyn Young's style and influence as a teacher

This paper publishes the hitherto unpublished correspondence between Allyn Abbott Young's biographer Charles Blitch and 17 of Young's former students or associates. Together with related biographical and archival material, the paper shows the way in which this adds to our knowledge of Young's considerable influence as a teacher upon some of the twentieth century's greatest economists. The correspondents are as follows: James W Angell, Colin Clark, Arthur H Cole, Lauchlin Currie, Melvin G de Chazeau, Eleanor Lansing Dulles, Howard S Ellis, Frank W Fetter, Earl J Hamilton, Seymour S Harris, Richard S Howey, Nicholas Kaldor, Melvin M Knight, Bertil Ohlin, Geoffrey Shepherd, Overton H Taylor, and Gilbert Walker

Be[com]ing a Teacher in Neoliberal Times: Visioning as Resistance in Teacher Education

Teacher education is under assault from the corporatization of public education. There is evidence that reductive, essentialized/ing discourses of standardization and compliance exert intense pressures on teacher education, and a market-based, audit culture constricts conceptions of the “good teacher”. Despite the pervasiveness of neoliberal discourses, little is known about how student teachers experience increased corporatization in education, or about how they act rather than are acted upon in this context. In examining these dynamics, we explore the following research questions: (a) How do student teachers make sense of neoliberal discourses in teaching? (b) How do student teachers experience the process of what Hammerness describes as “teacher visioning” in the context of neoliberal discourses? (c) What, if any, effect does visioning have on their responses to these discourses? We draw on qualitative data including focus groups, interviews, and document analysis from a group of early childhood student teachers enrolled in a public teacher education program and placed in field sites around eastern Massachusetts. Based on our findings, we argue that teacher visioning can, under certain circumstances, serve as an impetus for student teacher resistance to neoliberal pressures

Tuberculous extensor tenosynovitis of the wrist with extensor pollicis longus rupture: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>The tendon sheaths constitute an uncommon target of extra-articular tuberculosis.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present a rare case of tuberculous tenosynovitis of the wrist involving the extensor tendon with rupture of the extensor pollicis longus tendon in a 55-year-old Indian man.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Prompt surgical debridement and tissue diagnosis are essential for the diagnosis and treatment of this type of infection. With an accurate and timely diagnosis, appropriate surgery and antituberculous treatment may eradicate these infections and prevent complications.</p

Effect of early vasopressin vs norepinephrine on kidney failure in patients with septic shock. The VANISH Randomized Clinical Trial

IMPORTANCE: Norepinephrine is currently recommended as the first-line vasopressor in septic shock; however, early vasopressin use has been proposed as an alternative. OBJECTIVE: To compare the effect of early vasopressin vs norepinephrine on kidney failure in patients with septic shock. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A factorial (2×2), double-blind, randomized clinical trial conducted in 18 general adult intensive care units in the United Kingdom between February 2013 and May 2015, enrolling adult patients who had septic shock requiring vasopressors despite fluid resuscitation within a maximum of 6 hours after the onset of shock. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomly allocated to vasopressin (titrated up to 0.06 U/min) and hydrocortisone (n = 101), vasopressin and placebo (n = 104), norepinephrine and hydrocortisone (n = 101), or norepinephrine and placebo (n = 103). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcome was kidney failure-free days during the 28-day period after randomization, measured as (1) the proportion of patients who never developed kidney failure and (2) median number of days alive and free of kidney failure for patients who did not survive, who experienced kidney failure, or both. Rates of renal replacement therapy, mortality, and serious adverse events were secondary outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 409 patients (median age, 66 years; men, 58.2%) were included in the study, with a median time to study drug administration of 3.5 hours after diagnosis of shock. The number of survivors who never developed kidney failure was 94 of 165 patients (57.0%) in the vasopressin group and 93 of 157 patients (59.2%) in the norepinephrine group (difference, -2.3% [95% CI, -13.0% to 8.5%]). The median number of kidney failure-free days for patients who did not survive, who experienced kidney failure, or both was 9 days (interquartile range [IQR], 1 to -24) in the vasopressin group and 13 days (IQR, 1 to -25) in the norepinephrine group (difference, -4 days [95% CI, -11 to 5]). There was less use of renal replacement therapy in the vasopressin group than in the norepinephrine group (25.4% for vasopressin vs 35.3% for norepinephrine; difference, -9.9% [95% CI, -19.3% to -0.6%]). There was no significant difference in mortality rates between groups. In total, 22 of 205 patients (10.7%) had a serious adverse event in the vasopressin group vs 17 of 204 patients (8.3%) in the norepinephrine group (difference, 2.5% [95% CI, -3.3% to 8.2%]). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Among adults with septic shock, the early use of vasopressin compared with norepinephrine did not improve the number of kidney failure-free days. Although these findings do not support the use of vasopressin to replace norepinephrine as initial treatment in this situation, the confidence interval included a potential clinically important benefit for vasopressin, and larger trials may be warranted to assess this further. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: ISRCTN 20769191

DNA repair pathways underlie a common genetic mechanism modulating onset in polyglutamine diseases

Objective: The polyglutamine diseases, including Huntington’s disease (HD) and multiple spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs), are amongst the commonest hereditary neurodegenerative diseases. They are caused by expanded CAG tracts, encoding glutamine, in different genes. Longer CAG repeat tracts are associated with earlier ages at onset, but this does not account for all of the difference, and the existence of additional genetic modifying factors has been suggested in these diseases. A recent GWAS in HD found association between age at onset and genetic variants in DNA repair pathways and we therefore tested whether the modifying effects of variants in DNA repair genes have wider effects in the polyglutamine diseases. Methods: We assembled an independent cohort of 1462 subjects with HD and polyglutamine SCAs, and genotyped SNPs selected from the most significant hits in the HD study. Results: In the analysis of DNA repair genes as a group, we found the most significant association with age at onset when grouping all polyglutamine diseases (HD+SCAs, p=1.43x10-5). In individual SNP analysis, we found significant associations for rs3512 in FAN1 with HD+SCAs (p=1.52x10-5) and All SCAs (p=2.22x10-4) and rs1805323 in PMS2 with HD+SCAs (p=3.14x10-5), all in the same direction as in the HD GWAS. Interpretation: We show that DNA repair genes significantly modify the age at onset in HD and SCAs, suggesting a common pathogenic mechanism, which could operate through the observed somatic expansion of repeats that can be modulated by genetic manipulation of DNA repair in disease models. This offers novel therapeutic opportunities in multiple diseases

Development, characterization, and stability of O/W pepper nanoemulsions produced by high-pressure homogenization

Interest in the utilization of bioactive plant compounds in foods has increased due to their biochemical activities (antioxidant, antimicrobial, etc.), and as alternatives in the reduction of the use of high concentrations of chemical substances. However, some of these additives are hydrophobic, thus being harder to disperse into the food matrix, which is generally water-based. A good alternative is the use of low concentrations of these compounds as nanoemulsions. The objective of the present study was to develop oil-in-water nanoemulsions containing dedo-de-moça pepper extract for food applications. Research in the development of these nanoemulsions was carried out using a high-speed homogenizer, followed by a high-pressure homogenizer. The influence of the following parameters was assessed: type and concentration of surfactants, hidrophilic-lipophilic balance, lipid/aqueous phase ratio, surfactant/oil ratio, pepper extract composition in nanoemulsion, and processing conditions. Nanoemulsions were evaluated by environmental (centrifugal and thermal) and storage stabilities, characterized by average droplet size and -potential measurements, color, interfacial tension, atomic force, and cryo-scanning electron microscopy. Those with average droplet size between 132 ± 2.0 and 145 ± 1.0 nm were developed depending on working pressure and number of cycles; -potential was around 36.71 ± 0.62 mV and the best nanoemulsion was stable to centrifugation and most of the thermal stresses. Droplets were characterized with cryo-scanning electron microscopy as being spherical, homogeneous, and stable, and remained stable when stored at 4 °C and room temperature for over 120 days. The pepper nanoemulsion, developed in the present study, has potential applications in the food industry.The first author gratefully acknowledges the CNPq and CAPES (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Program Science without Boarder) for the BSWE^ PhD (Process 236877/2012-1) fellowship, and CAPES for the national PhD fellowship. The last author acknowledges the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Brazil, for the grant (CEPID-FoRC, 2013/07914-8).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Hubble Constant

I review the current state of determinations of the Hubble constant, which gives the length scale of the Universe by relating the expansion velocity of objects to their distance. There are two broad categories of measurements. The first uses individual astrophysical objects which have some property that allows their intrinsic luminosity or size to be determined, or allows the determination of their distance by geometric means. The second category comprises the use of all-sky cosmic microwave background, or correlations between large samples of galaxies, to determine information about the geometry of the Universe and hence the Hubble constant, typically in a combination with other cosmological parameters. Many, but not all, object-based measurements give $H_0$ values of around 72-74km/s/Mpc , with typical errors of 2-3km/s/Mpc. This is in mild discrepancy with CMB-based measurements, in particular those from the Planck satellite, which give values of 67-68km/s/Mpc and typical errors of 1-2km/s/Mpc. The size of the remaining systematics indicate that accuracy rather than precision is the remaining problem in a good determination of the Hubble constant. Whether a discrepancy exists, and whether new physics is needed to resolve it, depends on details of the systematics of the object-based methods, and also on the assumptions about other cosmological parameters and which datasets are combined in the case of the all-sky methods.Comment: Extensively revised and updated since the 2007 version: accepted by Living Reviews in Relativity as a major (2014) update of LRR 10, 4, 200

Looking inside the spiky bits : a critical review and conceptualisation of entrepreneurial ecosystems

The authors wish to thank the Organisational for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for funding their original research on entrepreneurial ecosystems.The concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems has quickly established itself as one of the latest ‘fads’ in entrepreneurship research. At face value, this kind of systemic approach to entrepreneurship offers a new and distinctive path for scholars and policy makers to help understand and foster growth-oriented entrepreneurship. However, its lack of specification and conceptual limitations has undoubtedly hindered our understanding of these complex organisms. Indeed, the rapid adoption of the concept has tended to overlook the heterogeneous nature of ecosystems. This paper provides a critical review and conceptualisation of the ecosystems concept: it unpacks the dynamics of the concept; outlines its theoretical limitations; measurement approaches and use in policy-making. It sets out a preliminary taxonomy of different archetypal ecosystems. The paper concludes that entrepreneurial ecosystems are a highly variegated, multi-actor and multi-scalar phenomenon, requiring bespoke policy interventions.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Depressive symptom trajectories among girls in the juvenile justice system: 24-month outcomes of an RCT of Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care

Youth depression is a significant and growing international public health problem. Youth who engage in high levels of delinquency are at particularly high risk for developing problems with depression. The present study examined the impact of a behavioral intervention designed to reduce delinquency (Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care; MTFC) compared to a group care intervention (GC; i.e., services as usual) on trajectories of depressive symptoms among adolescent girls in the juvenile justice system. MTFC has documented effects on preventing girls' recidivism, but its effects on preventing the normative rise in girls' depressive symptoms across adolescence have not been examined. This indicated prevention sample included 166 girls (13-17 years at T1) who had at least one criminal referral in the past 12 months and who were mandated to out-of-home care; girls were randomized to MTFC or GC. Intent-to-treat analyses examined the main effects of MTFC on depression symptoms and clinical cut-offs, and whether benefits were greatest for girls most at risk. Depressive symptom trajectories were specified in hierarchical linear growth models over a 2 year period using five waves of data at 6 month intervals. Depression clinical cut-off scores were specified as nonlinear probability growth models. Results showed significantly greater rates of deceleration for girls in MTFC versus GC for depressive symptoms and for clinical cut-off scores. The MTFC intervention also showed greater benefits for girls with higher levels of initial depressive symptoms. Possible mechanisms of effect are discussed, given MTFC's effectiveness on targeted and nontargeted outcomes. © 2013 Society for Prevention Research