What do primary teachers need to understand, and how? Developing an applied linguistics curriculum for pre-service primary school teacher

Seminars were designed to encourage debate about the applied linguistics understandings that are most helpful to primary school teachers in designing and teaching the language and literacy curriculum, in working with pupils with identified speech and language needs, and in working with other professionals such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists. Participants were invited to consider what would be most helpful for primary-school teachers to understand about applied linguistics perspectives, and how this understanding could best be developed. These seminars are possibly the first UK opportunity for such a wide range of people to discuss these issues. Discussion came not only from the different professional concerns and research perspectives but also from differences in how Scotland and England make, implement and monitor language and literacy education policy. The two seminars were designed to run as a conversation, and the papers in the second seminar developed themes and issues raised in the first, as well as introducing new themes of their own. The first seminar made the case for how applied linguistics perspectives can, and do, inform the curriculum and pedagogy in primary schools. Professor Debra Myhill (Exeter University) began by reporting on her research on Writers as Designers. She summarised some of the research on young writers' linguistic development - their lexical choices, syntactic features, and thematic variety - arguing that linguistic knowledge is necessary for good writers but not sufficient: good writers need also to have access to a thinking repertoire from which they design, craft and shape texts that meet their communicative goals. In doing this, the relationship between the writer, the text and context is central, and teachers need to draw on knowledge from all these perspectives

Effect of contextual variables on mealtime problem behavior in the natural environment

A growing body of research suggests that contingency-based interventions are effective for decreasing mealtime problem behavior and increasing the amount and variety of food accepted. To date, two published studies have examined the effects of specific contextual variables (food type and texture or session pre-feeding) on mealtime behavior. Research with problem behavior occurring outside of mealtime suggests that problem behavior may often be under the control of contextual or contextual variables. The purpose of this study was to further evaluate the effect of contextual variables on mealtime behavior. Four children and their caregivers served as participants in both Phases 1 and 2. In Phase 1 preference and pre-feeding assessments were conducted. In Phase 2 participants were exposed to 3 or 4 contextual variables (e.g., preferred food present, tangible, idiosyncratic and other family members present) under conditions of food deprivation versus session pre-feeding. Across participants, the occurrence of mealtime problem behavior was found to decrease during the presentation of different contextual variable arrangements

Reduction of trimethylamine N-oxide to trimethylamine by the human gut microbiota: supporting evidence for ‘metabolic retroversion’

Dietary sources of methylamines such as choline, trimethylamine (TMA), trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), phosphatidylcholine (PC) and carnitine are present in a number of foodstuffs, including meat, fish, nuts and eggs. It is recognized that the gut microbiota is able to convert choline to TMA in a fermentation-like process. Similarly, PC and carnitine are converted to TMA by the gut microbiota. It has been suggested that TMAO is subject to ‘metabolic retroversion’ in the gut (i.e. it is reduced to TMA by the gut microbiota, with this TMA being oxidized to produce TMAO in the liver). Sixty-six strains of human faecal and caecal bacteria were screened on solid and liquid media for their ability to utilize trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), with metabolites in spent media profiled by Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy. Enterobacteriaceae produced mostly TMA from TMAO, with caecal/small intestinal isolates of Escherichia coli producing more TMA than their faecal counterparts. Lactic acid bacteria (enterococci, streptococci, bifidobacteria) produced increased amounts of lactate when grown in the presence of TMAO, but did not produce large amounts of TMA from TMAO. The presence of TMAO in media increased the growth rate of Enterobacteriaceae; while it did not affect the growth rate of lactic acid bacteria, TMAO increased the biomass of these bacteria. The positive influence of TMAO on Enterobacteriaceae was confirmed in anaerobic, stirred, pH-controlled batch culture fermentation systems inoculated with human faeces, where this was the only bacterial population whose growth was significantly stimulated by the presence of TMAO in the medium. We hypothesize that dietary TMAO is used as an alternative electron acceptor by the gut microbiota in the small intestine/proximal colon, and contributes to microbial population dynamics upon its utilization and retroversion to TMA, prior to absorption and secondary conversion to TMAO by hepatic flavin-containing monooxygenases. Our findings support the idea that oral TMAO supplementation is a physiologically-stable microbiota-mediated strategy to deliver TMA at the gut barrier

Visualising and quantifying 'excess deaths' in Scotland compared with the rest of the UK and the rest of Western Europe

BACKGROUND: Scotland has higher mortality rates than the rest of Western Europe (rWE), with more cardiovascular disease and cancer among older adults; and alcohol-related and drug-related deaths, suicide and violence among younger adults. METHODS: We obtained sex, age-specific and year-specific all-cause mortality rates for Scotland and other populations, and explored differences in mortality both visually and numerically. RESULTS: Scotland's age-specific mortality was higher than the rest of the UK (rUK) since 1950, and has increased. Between the 1950s and 2000s, 'excess deaths' by age 80 per 100 000 population associated with living in Scotland grew from 4341 to 7203 compared with rUK, and from 4132 to 8828 compared with rWE. UK-wide mortality risk compared with rWE also increased, from 240 'excess deaths' in the 1950s to 2320 in the 2000s. Cohorts born in the 1940s and 1950s throughout the UK including Scotland had lower mortality risk than comparable rWE populations, especially for males. Mortality rates were higher in Scotland than rUK and rWE among younger adults from the 1990s onwards suggesting an age-period interaction. CONCLUSIONS: Worsening mortality among young adults in the past 30 years reversed a relative advantage evident for those born between 1950 and 1960. Compared with rWE, Scotland and rUK have followed similar trends but Scotland has started from a worse position and had worse working age-period effects in the 1990s and 2000s

College teaching preparedness : contributions of graduate student experiences

"May 2014."Dissertation Supervisor: Dr. Stephen Whitney.Includes vita.This study establishes the types of teaching experiences that graduate students have in graduate school, their teaching approach, and how these affect teaching efficacy. Data were collected from 327 graduate students from a variety of degree program disciplines at various stages in their degree programs. A sources of teaching efficacy questionnaire was developed using confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory factor analysis. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to determine if a significant amount of variance in teaching efficacy could be explained by the sources of teaching efficacy reported by graduate students. A series of regression analyses was used to determine if a significant amount of variance in teaching efficacy could be explained by the teaching approach. Hierarchical multiple regression was then used to determine if a significant amount of variance in teaching efficacy could be explained by the sources of teaching efficacy and teaching approach, combined. Positive affective states and positive verbal experiences contributed significantly to teaching efficacy. Conceptual change/student focused approaches, for both lecture and discussion class styles, contributed significantly to teaching efficacy. Positive affective states and conceptual change/student-focused (lecture) significantly influenced teaching efficacy in the combined model.Includes bibliographical references (pages 128-134)

The Transition to Finance Capitalism and its implications for financial reporting: evidence from the English canal companies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the roles of corporate governance reforms in Malaysia following the 1997/1998 Asian crisis from the perspectives of corporate managers. Design/methodology/approach – The primary evidence used is drawn from a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with Malaysian corporate managers involved in the overseeing of the governance structures within their companies. Findings – This study shows that most interviewees believed that an appropriate corporate governance system could play a role in resolving the problems associated with the interlocking and concentrated corporate ownership structure in Malaysia. However, the effectiveness of the corporate governance reforms in dealing with this issue is questionable. It also reveals that Malaysian companies ‘changed’ their corporate governance practices predominantly to recover (foreign) investor confidence lost during the crisis and to fulfil the legal requirements enforced by the government, where the latter was under pressure from the international community (especially, the World Bank and IMF) to ‘improve’ the Malaysian corporate governance practices after the crisis

Redefining successful primary PCI

No abstract available