Drawing Before Writing: A Metacognitive Scaffold to Year 2 Children\u27s Story Writing

This paper describes a pre-service teacher-researcher’s action research study into Year 2 children’s approach to story writing. The purpose of the study was to investigate the use of drawing to improve the quality and quantity of children’s writing by using drawing before writing to scaffold children’s thinking during the story writing process. The use of drawing also sought to improve students’ view of themselves as competent writers. The paper describes a six week period during which children were encouraged to draw their thoughts before commencing the writing of their story. Children’s comments on the drawing process give educators insights into the way lower primary children create and develop story plots during story writing sessions. Data was analysed using themes emerging from anecdotal jottings, and teacher-researcher diary reflections. Student work samples and questionnaires were also collected and analysed. The findings of this research suggest that some children’s thinking and story writing skills benefit from drawing before commencing writing tasks. This research also provides teachers with insight into the way children reflect upon themselves as writers and communicators

The Promise of Healthcare Reform in Transforming Services for Jail Detainees

Chronic behavioral health conditions, such as psychiatric and substance use disorders, affect at least half of all arrestees, with two-thirds suffering from at least one chronic medical disorder. These conditions contribute to their criminal behaviors and propensities to recycle through the criminal justice system (Binswanger et al. Journal of Urban Health 89:183-190, 2012). Despite their limited resources, jails have nonetheless become de facto settings for the delivery of healthcare services. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, jail releasees will become eligible for government-subsidized healthcare coverage in 2014. The widespread availability of integrated healthcare services for the released jail population is likely to reduce criminal behavior, which is often associated with psychiatric and substance use disorders and their co-occurrence. This article provides an overview of behavioral healthcare services available to jail releasees. We discuss the evolving landscape of substance use and mental health interventions under healthcare reform, including anticipated changes in funding infrastructures and streams for treatment services. We examine the financial and practical implications of these changes for the criminal justice system, particularly for the nation’s jails

Trans-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of prostate cancer identifies new susceptibility loci and informs genetic risk prediction.

Prostate cancer is a highly heritable disease with large disparities in incidence rates across ancestry populations. We conducted a multiancestry meta-analysis of prostate cancer genome-wide association studies (107,247 cases and 127,006 controls) and identified 86 new genetic risk variants independently associated with prostate cancer risk, bringing the total to 269 known risk variants. The top genetic risk score (GRS) decile was associated with odds ratios that ranged from 5.06 (95% confidence interval (CI), 4.84-5.29) for men of European ancestry to 3.74 (95% CI, 3.36-4.17) for men of African ancestry. Men of African ancestry were estimated to have a mean GRS that was 2.18-times higher (95% CI, 2.14-2.22), and men of East Asian ancestry 0.73-times lower (95% CI, 0.71-0.76), than men of European ancestry. These findings support the role of germline variation contributing to population differences in prostate cancer risk, with the GRS offering an approach for personalized risk prediction

May Measurement Month 2018: a pragmatic global screening campaign to raise awareness of blood pressure by the International Society of Hypertension

Aims Raised blood pressure (BP) is the biggest contributor to mortality and disease burden worldwide and fewer than half of those with hypertension are aware of it. May Measurement Month (MMM) is a global campaign set up in 2017, to raise awareness of high BP and as a pragmatic solution to a lack of formal screening worldwide. The 2018 campaign was expanded, aiming to include more participants and countries. Methods and results Eighty-nine countries participated in MMM 2018. Volunteers (≥18 years) were recruited through opportunistic sampling at a variety of screening sites. Each participant had three BP measurements and completed a questionnaire on demographic, lifestyle, and environmental factors. Hypertension was defined as a systolic BP ≥140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥90 mmHg, or taking antihypertensive medication. In total, 74.9% of screenees provided three BP readings. Multiple imputation using chained equations was used to impute missing readings. 1 504 963 individuals (mean age 45.3 years; 52.4% female) were screened. After multiple imputation, 502 079 (33.4%) individuals had hypertension, of whom 59.5% were aware of their diagnosis and 55.3% were taking antihypertensive medication. Of those on medication, 60.0% were controlled and of all hypertensives, 33.2% were controlled. We detected 224 285 individuals with untreated hypertension and 111 214 individuals with inadequately treated (systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg) hypertension. Conclusion May Measurement Month expanded significantly compared with 2017, including more participants in more countries. The campaign identified over 335 000 adults with untreated or inadequately treated hypertension. In the absence of systematic screening programmes, MMM was effective at raising awareness at least among these individuals at risk

Genome-Wide Meta-Analyses of Breast, Ovarian, and Prostate Cancer Association Studies Identify Multiple New Susceptibility Loci Shared by at Least Two Cancer Types.

UNLABELLED: Breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers are hormone-related and may have a shared genetic basis, but this has not been investigated systematically by genome-wide association (GWA) studies. Meta-analyses combining the largest GWA meta-analysis data sets for these cancers totaling 112,349 cases and 116,421 controls of European ancestry, all together and in pairs, identified at P < 10(-8) seven new cross-cancer loci: three associated with susceptibility to all three cancers (rs17041869/2q13/BCL2L11; rs7937840/11q12/INCENP; rs1469713/19p13/GATAD2A), two breast and ovarian cancer risk loci (rs200182588/9q31/SMC2; rs8037137/15q26/RCCD1), and two breast and prostate cancer risk loci (rs5013329/1p34/NSUN4; rs9375701/6q23/L3MBTL3). Index variants in five additional regions previously associated with only one cancer also showed clear association with a second cancer type. Cell-type-specific expression quantitative trait locus and enhancer-gene interaction annotations suggested target genes with potential cross-cancer roles at the new loci. Pathway analysis revealed significant enrichment of death receptor signaling genes near loci with P < 10(-5) in the three-cancer meta-analysis. SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrate that combining large-scale GWA meta-analysis findings across cancer types can identify completely new risk loci common to breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers. We show that the identification of such cross-cancer risk loci has the potential to shed new light on the shared biology underlying these hormone-related cancers. Cancer Discov; 6(9); 1052-67. ©2016 AACR.This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 932.The Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), the Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Cancer Associated Alterations in the Genome (PRACTICAL), and the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC) that contributed breast, prostate, and ovarian cancer data analyzed in this study were in part funded by Cancer Research UK [C1287/A10118 and C1287/A12014 for BCAC; C5047/A7357, C1287/A10118, C5047/A3354, C5047/A10692, and C16913/A6135 for PRACTICAL; and C490/A6187, C490/A10119, C490/A10124, C536/A13086, and C536/A6689 for OCAC]. Funding for the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS) infrastructure came from: the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement number 223175 (HEALTH-F2-2009-223175), Cancer Research UK (C1287/A10118, C1287/A 10710, C12292/A11174, C1281/A12014, C5047/A8384, C5047/A15007, C5047/A10692, and C8197/A16565), the US National Institutes of Health (CA128978) and the Post-Cancer GWAS Genetic Associations and Mechanisms in Oncology (GAME-ON) initiative (1U19 CA148537, 1U19 CA148065, and 1U19 CA148112), the US Department of Defence (W81XWH-10-1-0341), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for the CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer, Komen Foundation for the Cure, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund [with donations by the family and friends of Kathryn Sladek Smith (PPD/RPCI.07)]. Additional financial support for contributing studies is documented under Supplementary Financial Support.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Association for Cancer Research via http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-15-122

Crossing the line: Performing cultural identities through global Shakespearean drama.

The canonical force of Renaissance drama contributes to its being a major player in the recent formations of many identities on the global stage. Crossing the Line begins with a single premise: the conviction that dramatic texts need to be considered not as inert relics but as a collection of scripts that offer theatre practitioners and audiences opportunities to negotiate identity. My analysis contends that theatre companies have transformed Shakespearean performance into a transnational text that serves as a shifting and evolving testament to how local communities grapple with contemporary identities of gender, sexuality, race, language and nation. My consideration of a 1994 Johannesburg production of Titus Andronicus, which sharply critiques the former apartheid regime, shows the extent to which nation-building is portrayed as dependent on racialized and gendered violence. The backlash that accompanied this cast's use of Afrikaans and African accents reveals Afrikaners' continued anxiety about British influence in the post-apartheid era. In my exploration of a 1999 Sydney production of As You Like It, I assert that the casting of Aboriginal actors in the roles of Rosalind and the deposed Duke renders the playtext's debates about land ownership instantly recognizable within an Australian political context. Mixed responses to the production's decision to sustain the homoerotic energies of Arden and to refer to the experience of the Stolen Generations suggest the tenuousness of diverse sexualities and settler culpability in Australian life. By framing theatrical performance as a social practice, I interrogate the ideological and material negotiations of theatre. These analyses demonstrate the ideological force of dramatic embodiment when theatre practitioners and audiences explore how these cultural identities play on stage.Ph.D.Communication and the ArtsEnglish literatureLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsSocial SciencesTheaterWomen's studiesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/124883/2/3163883.pd

The Promise of Healthcare Reform in Transforming Services for Jail Detainees

Chronic behavioral health conditions, such as psychiatric and substance use disorders, affect at least half of all arrestees, with two-thirds suffering from at least one chronic medical disorder. These conditions contribute to their criminal behaviors and propensities to recycle through the criminal justice system (Binswanger et al. Journal of Urban Health 89:183-190, 2012). Despite their limited resources, jails have nonetheless become de facto settings for the delivery of healthcare services. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, jail releasees will become eligible for government-subsidized healthcare coverage in 2014. The widespread availability of integrated healthcare services for the released jail population is likely to reduce criminal behavior, which is often associated with psychiatric and substance use disorders and their co-occurrence. This article provides an overview of behavioral healthcare services available to jail releasees. We discuss the evolving landscape of substance use and mental health interventions under healthcare reform, including anticipated changes in funding infrastructures and streams for treatment services. We examine the financial and practical implications of these changes for the criminal justice system, particularly for the nation’s jails

Efficacy of Ofloxacin vs Cefazolin and Tobramycin in the Therapy for Bacterial Keratitis: Report From the Bacterial Keratitis Study Research Group

PURPOSE: To compare ofloxacin solution with a combination of fortified antibiotic cefazolin sodium and tobramycin sulfate solutions in the treatment of bacterial keratitis. METHODS: Patients under care at any one of 28 participating clinical centers who had an eye with suspected bacterial keratitis were randomly allocated in a double-masked manner to treatment with 0.3% ofloxacin solution or a combination of the fortified antibiotics (1.5% tobramycin and 10.0% cefazolin solutions). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Time to healing defined as complete re-epithelization, accompanied by a nonprogressive stromal infiltrate for two consecutive visits. Secondary outcome measures included patient symptoms and signs of infection and adverse reactions to study medications. Only patients with a positive bacterial corneal culture were included in most analyses. RESULTS: A positive bacterial corneal culture was obtained in 140 (56%) of the 248 enrolled patients. The time to healing was similar among the 73 patients receiving ofloxacin and the 67 patients receiving fortified antibiotics (P=.70). By 7 days after study entry, the keratitis in 37% of the ofloxacin group and 38% of the fortified antibiotics group had healed. By 28 days, keratitis in 89% of the ofloxacin group and 86% of the fortified antibiotics group had healed. Two patients receiving ofloxacin and one receiving fortified antibiotics discontinued study medication because of lack of efficacy. Patients receiving ofloxacin reported substantially less burning and stinging on instillation than the patients receiving fortified antibiotics (P<.001). Five of six patients among the 140 with positive bacterial cultures who had study medications discontinued because of ocular side effects were in the fortified antibiotics group; an additional three patients, all in the fortified antibiotics group, among the remaining 108 receiving study medications had ocular side effects. CONCLUSIONS: The efficacy of ofloxacin solution in treating bacterial keratitis is equivalent to that of the fortified cefazolin and tobramycin solutions. The reduced frequency of ocular toxic effects and the relative ease of preparation of ofloxacin are additional considerations