Hungry to learn:a critical analysis of New Zealand’s debate and inconsistent approach to school meals, with lessons from Finland’s broadly supported universal programme

Abstract. The impact of poverty and hunger on children’s education and life outcomes is a pervasive problem in Aotearoa New Zealand, but effective action to ensure all children are well fed at school is obstructed by debate about who is responsible. I investigate this issue with a critical lens and seek to identify conditions for consensus and collaboration to address it. To do this, I explore the potential of school meals to alleviate the impact of inequalities, food insecurity and hunger on education globally. I also map the tension between ideological arguments about individual or collective responsibility that inform different countries’ approaches to food in schools. Finland provides an example of a universal free school meals programme long upheld by social and political consensus about its value for individuals and the country, and the collective role of government and society to provide it. To consider Finnish lessons for New Zealand, I broadly compare the two countries’ respective attitudes and approaches within their sociohistorical contexts, highlighting unintentional happenings and intentional acts that contributed to their development. Finally, I identify common ground and points of divergence in a critical thematic analysis of competing arguments and ideologies embodied in two New Zealand parliamentary debates that ultimately saw proposals to legislate government responsibility for targeted food in schools being narrowly defeated. I conclude it is both necessary and possible to bridge the deep-seated divide and foster consensus in Aotearoa New Zealand. Evidence, common perspectives, lessons from Finland and our own unique opportunities can advance cooperation so all children on these islands can be nourished and supported in their learning and development

How I prevent erysipelas and its consequences and recurrences.

peer reviewedErysipelas is a serious infection of the skin. In case of delay in initiating adequate antibiotic treatment, complications, sometimes dismal, can supervene. In addition, erysipelas shows a tendancy to recurrences. The prevention of an episode of erysipelas calls for correct personal hygiene and adequate use of topical antiseptics in case of skin effraction, even when minimal. When erysipelas is established, a rapidly initiated antibiotic treatment for a prolonged period prevents streptococcal gangrene complications. Elastic contention of any leg edema from venous or lymphatic origin and prophylactic antisepsis of discrete wounds help in preventing erysipelas recurrences

The Library as a Lab for Student Work (chapter 3)

Students are emerging scholars whose work should be recognized and shared along with work created by established scholars. Libraries are actively engaged with student-created content and encourage students to see themselves as producers, not just consumers, of information. By shifting priorities, libraries should include student-created content in their spaces, and become participants in high-impact educational practices, increasing student investment in their learning, their engagement with scholarship at the institutional level, and their success and retention. These new priorities also open the library to new campus partnerships, making student scholarship and content a common goal. Scholarship in the Sandbox is broken into four sections—Library as Laboratory, Library as Forum, Library as Archive, and Articulating the Value of Student Work—containing case studies and discussions from diverse perspectives including students, classroom professors, academic staff, and librarians from across North America. These studies address the innovative ways that libraries are actively occupying more central space on campus as practical laboratories outside of the classroom. Authors describe efforts to curate student work, explore intellectual property issues, and provide tips for promoting and preserving access to this production through new programming and services that affirm libraries’ roles in intellectual processes. They demonstrate collective learning in a sandbox environment where the answers are far less important than the multiplicity of prospective solutions, and present several models for providing a supportive environment in which students, teaching faculty, and librarians can practice, explore, fail at, and refine their academic work through collaboration

Mutant and chimeric recobinant plasminogen activatorsproduction in eukaryotic cellsand preliminary characterization

Mutant urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) genes and hybrid genes between tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and u-PA have been designed to direct the synthesis of new plasminogen activators and to investigate the structure-function relationship in these molecules. The following classes of constructs were made starting from cDNA encoding human t-PA or u-PA: 1) u-PA mutants in which the Arg156 and Lys158 were substituted with threonine, thus preventing cleavage by thrombin and plasmin; 2) hybrid molecules in which the NH2-terminal regions of t-PA (amino acid residues 1-67, 1-262, or 1-313) were fused with the COOH-terminal region of u-PA (amino acids 136-411, 139-411, or 195-411, respectively); and 3) a hybrid molecule in which the second kringle of t-PA (amino acids 173-262) was inserted between amino acids 130 and 139 of u-PA. In all cases but one, the recombinant proteins, produced by transfected eukaryotic cells, were efficiently secreted in the culture medium. The translation products have been tested for their ability to activate plasminogen after in situ binding to an insolubilized monoclonal antibody directed against urokinase. All recombinant enzymes were shown to be active, except those in which Lys158 of u-PA was substituted with threonine. Recombination of structural regions derived from t-PA, such as the finger, the kringle 2, or most of the A-chain sequences, with the protease part or the complete u-PA molecule did not impair the catalytic activity of the hybrid polypeptides. This observation supports the hypothesis that structural domains in t-PA and u-PA fold independently from one to another

Left atrial function and remodelling in aortic stenosis.

AIMS: The present study sought to determine the relationship between left atrial (LA) volume (structural changes) and LA function as assessed by strain rate imaging in patients with aortic stenosis (AS). METHODS AND RESULTS: The study consisted of a total of 64 consecutive patients with severe AS (<1 cm²) and 20 healthy control subjects. The phasic LA volumes and function (tissue Doppler-derived strain) were assessed in all patients. As compared with healthy controls, all strain-derived parameters of LA function were reduced in patients with AS. Conversely, only indexed LA passive volume (increased) (7.6 ± 3.8 vs. 10.5 ± 5.1 ml/m², P= 0.02) and LA active fraction (decreased) (43 ± 6.7 vs. 31 ± 13.3%, P< 0.001) (volume-based parameters) were significantly different between AS and controls. In AS, LA volume-derived function parameters were poorly correlated with LA strain parameters. In fact, by multivariable analysis, no LA phasic strain parameters emerged as independently associated with LA phasic volume parameters. CONCLUSIONS: In AS, changes in LA function did not parallel changes in LA size. Furthermore, the increase in LA volume does not necessarily reflect the presence of intrinsic LA dysfunctio

Management of a pregnant woman with fibromuscular dysplasia

No abstract available

The post-mortem resilience of facial creases and the possibility for use in identification of the dead

The post-mortem resilience of facial creases was studied using donated bodies in order to establish the efficacy of crease analysis for identification of the dead. Creases were studied on normal (pre-embalmed) and bloated (embalmed) cadavers at the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification (CAHID) to establish whether facial bloating would affect facial crease visibility. Embalming was chosen to simulate the effects produced by post-mortem bloating. The results suggested that creases are resilient and changes were only detected for creases located on the periphery of the face, particularly at areas where the skin is thick, such as at the cheeks. Two new creases not previously classified were identified; these creases were called the vertical superciliary arch line and the lateral nose crease. This research suggests that facial creases may be resilient enough after death to be utilised for human identification

High Prevalence of False Chordae Tendinae in Patients Without Left Ventricular Tachycardia

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74774/1/j.1540-8159.2007.00628.x.pd

Stratification of single-vessel coronary stenosis by ischemic threshold at the onset of wall motion abnormality during continuous monitoring of left ventricular function by semisupine exercise echocardiography.

peer reviewedWe studied the relation between the ischemic threshold at the onset of wall motion abnormality on exercise echocardiography (EE) and the severity of coronary stenosis in patients with 1-vessel coronary artery disease (CAD). We screened 216 consecutive patients who underwent coronary angiography and EE for suspected CAD. Ninety-five (74 men; age, 56 +/- 12 years) satisfied the study criteria, that is, the presence of 1-vessel disease or no evidence of CAD on angiography and a normal baseline echocardiogram. Eighty-seven patients had 1-vessel CAD on angiography, and exercise-induced wall motion abnormality occurred in 73 (77%). Optimal cutoff values of percent diameter stenosis and minimal lumen diameter for predicting a positive EE were 61% (sensitivity and specificity of 76%) and 1.12 mm (sensitivity and specificity of 74%). Among patients with positive EE, heart rate-blood pressure product at ischemic threshold was correlated with quantitative coronary stenosis (r = -0.72, P <.001). The ischemic threshold from continuous monitoring of left ventricular function during semisupine EE is correlated with the severity of coronary stenosis among patients with 1-vessel disease and a normal resting echocardiogram

Nutrition and the circadian system

The human circadian system anticipates and adapts to daily environmental changes to optimise behaviour according to time of day and temporally partitions incompatible physiological processes. At the helm of this system is a master clock in the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the anterior hypothalamus. The SCN are primarily synchronised to the 24-h day by the light/dark cycle; however, feeding/fasting cycles are the primary time cues for clocks in peripheral tissues. Aligning feeding/fasting cycles with clock-regulated metabolic changes optimises metabolism, and studies of other animals suggest that feeding at inappropriate times disrupts circadian system organisation, and thereby contributes to adverse metabolic consequences and chronic disease development. ‘High-fat diets’ (HFD) produce particularly deleterious effects on circadian system organisation in rodents by blunting feeding/fasting cycles. Time-of-day-restricted feeding, where food availability is restricted to a period of several hours, offsets many adverse consequences of HFD in these animals; however, further evidence is required to assess whether the same is true in humans. Several nutritional compounds have robust effects on the circadian system. Caffeine, for example, can speed synchronisation to new time zones after jetlag. An appreciation of the circadian system has many implications for nutritional science and may ultimately help reduce the burden of chronic diseases