The Impact of Math Teachers’ Circles on Teacher Dispositions toward Inquiry-based Learning: A Comparison between a Three-day and a One-day Summer Workshop

High-quality professional development for K-12 teachers is a critical need for both teachers and their students. For teachers to provide more engaging and powerful learning opportunities for their students, researchers suggest that we provide similar opportunities for teachers. That is, professional development should model high-impact instructional strategies. Math Teachers\u27 Circles provide one such model for this type of training. In this paper, we discuss the impact on participants of a one-day and participants of a three-day Math Teachers\u27 Circle workshop. In particular, we compare how teacher dispositions regarding the teaching of mathematics and inquiry-based learning changed between the workshops

Drug Use in Street Sex worKers (DUSSK) study – results of a mixed methods feasibility study of a complex intervention to reduce illicit drug use in drug dependent female sex workers

OBJECTIVES: The majority of female street-based sex workers (SSWs) are dependent on illicit drugs and sell sex to fund their drug use. They typically face multiple traumatic experiences, starting at a young age, which continue through sex work involvement. Their trauma-related symptoms tend to increase when drug use is reduced, hindering sustained reduction. Providing specialist trauma care to address post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) alongside drug treatment may therefore improve treatment outcomes. Aims to (1) evaluate recruitment and retention of participants; (2) examine intervention experiences and acceptability; and (3) explore intervention costs using a mixed methods feasibility study. SETTING: Female SSW charity premises in a large UK inner city. PARTICIPANTS: Females aged 18 years or older, who have sold sex on the street and used heroin and/or crack cocaine at least once a week in the last calendar month. INTERVENTION: Female SSW-only drug treatment groups in a female SSW-only setting delivered by female staff. Targeted PTSD screening then treatment of positive diagnoses with eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy by female staff from a specialist National Health Service trauma service. RESULTS: (1) Of 125 contacts, 11 met inclusion criteria and provided informed consent, 4 reached the intervention final stage, (2) service providers said working in collaboration with other services was valuable, the intervention was worthwhile and had a positive influence on participants. Participants viewed recruitment as acceptable and experienced the intervention positively. The unsettled nature of participant's lives was a key attendance barrier. (3) The total cost of the intervention was £11 710, with staff costs dominating. CONCLUSIONS: Recruitment and retention rates reflected study inclusion criteria targeting women with the most complex needs. Two participants received EMDR demonstrating that the three agencies working together was feasible. Staff heavy costs highlight the importance of supporting participant attendance to minimise per participant costs in a future trial

Socioeconomic differences in childhood length/height trajectories in a middle-income country: a cohort study:a cohort study

Published: 8 September 2014Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with shorter adult stature. Few studies have examined socioeconomic differences in stature from birth to childhood and the mechanisms involved, particularly in middle-income former Soviet settings.The sample included 12,463 Belarusian children (73% of the original cohort) born in 1996-1997, with up to 14 stature measurements from birth to 7 years. Linear spline multi-level models with 3 knots at 3, 12 and 34 months were used to analyse birth length and growth velocity during four age-periods by parental educational achievement (up to secondary school, advanced secondary/partial university, completed university) and occupation (manual, non-manual).Girls born to the most (versus least) educated mothers were 0.43 cm (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.28, 0.58) longer at birth; for boys, the corresponding difference was 0.30 cm (95% CI: 0.15, 0.46). Similarly, children of the most educated mothers grew faster from birth-3 months and 12-34 months (p-values for trend ≤ 0.08), such that, by age 7 years, girls with the most (versus least) educated mothers were 1.92 cm (95% CI: 1.47, 2.36) taller; after controlling for urban/rural and East/West area of residence, this difference remained at 1.86 cm (95% CI: 1.42, 2.31), but after additionally controlling for mid-parental height, attenuated to 1.10 cm (95% CI: 0.69, 1.52). Among boys, these differences were 1.95 cm (95% CI: 1.53, 2.37), 1.89 cm (95% CI: 1.47, 2.31) and 1.16 cm (95% CI: 0.77, 1.55), respectively. Additionally controlling for breastfeeding, maternal smoking and older siblings did not substantively alter these findings. There was no evidence that the association of maternal educational attainment with growth differed in girls compared to boys (p for interaction = 0.45). Results were similar for those born to the most (versus least) educated fathers, or who had a parent with a non-manual (versus manual) occupation.In Belarus, a middle-income former Soviet country, socioeconomic differences in offspring growth commence in the pre-natal period and generate up to approximately 2 cm difference in height at age 7 years. These associations are partly explained by genetic or other factors influencing parental stature.Current Controlled Trials: NCT01352247 assigned 9 Sept 2005; ClinicalTrials.gov. Identifier: NCT01561612 received 20 Mar 2012.Rita Patel, Kate Tilling, Debbie A Lawlor, Laura D Howe, Natalia Bogdanovich, Lidia Matush, Emily Nicoli, Michael S Kramer and Richard M Marti

Filter Paper Blood Spot Enzyme Linked Immunoassay for Adiponectin and Application in the Evaluation of Determinants of Child Insulin Sensitivity

Background: Adiponectin is an adipocyte-derived hormone that acts as a marker of insulin sensitivity. Bloodspot sampling by fingerstick onto filter paper may increase the feasibility of large-scale studies of the determinants of insulin sensitivity. We first describe the validation of an enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA) for quantifying adiponectin from dried blood spots and then demonstrate its application in a large trial (PROBIT). Methods: We quantified adiponectin from 3-mm diameter discs (≈3 µL of blood) punched from dried blood spots obtained from: i) whole blood standards (validation); and ii) PROBIT trial samples (application) in which paediatricians collected blood spots from 13,879 children aged 11.5 years from 31 sites across Belarus. We examined the distribution of bloodspot adiponectin by demographic and anthropometric factors, fasting insulin and glucose. Results: In the validation study, mean intra-assay coefficients of variation (n = 162) were 15%, 13% and 10% for ‘low’ (6.78 µg/ml), ‘medium’ (18.18 µg/ml) and 'high’ (33.13 µg/ml) internal quality control (IQC) samples, respectively; the respective inter-assay values (n = 40) were 23%, 21% and 14%. The correlation coefficient between 50 paired whole bloodspot versus plasma samples, collected simultaneously, was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.78 to 0.93). Recovery of known quantities of adiponectin (between 4.5 to 36 µg/ml) was 100.3–133%. Bloodspot adiponectin was stable for at least 30 months at −80°C. In PROBIT, we successfully quantified fasting adiponectin from dried blood spots in 13,329 of 13,879 (96%) children. Mean adiponectin (standard deviation) concentrations were 17.34 µg/ml (7.54) in boys and 18.41 µg/ml (7.92) in girls and were inversely associated with body mass index, fat mass, triceps and subscapular skin-fold thickness, waist circumference, height and fasting glucose. Conclusions: Bloodspot ELISA is suitable for measuring adiponectin in very small volumes of blood collected on filter paper and can be applied to large-scale studies

Familial Associations of Adiposity: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study of 12,181 Parental-Offspring Trios from Belarus

It is suggested that maternal adiposity has a stronger association with offspring adiposity than does paternal adiposity. Furthermore, a recent small study reported gender assortment in parental-offspring adiposity associations. We aimed to examine these associations in one of the largest studies to date using data from a low-middle income country that has recently undergone a major political and economic transition.In a cross-sectional study of 12,181 parental-offspring trios from Belarus (mean age (SD) of mothers 31.7 (4.9), fathers 34.1 (5.1) and children 6.6 (0.3) at time of assessment), we found positive graded associations of mother's and father's BMI with offspring adiposity. There was no evidence that these associations differed between mothers and fathers. For example, the odds ratio of offspring overweight or obesity (based on BMI) comparing obese and overweight mothers to normal weight mothers was 2.03 (95%CI 1.77, 2.31) in fully adjusted models; the equivalent result for father's overweight/obesity was 1.81 (1.58, 2.07). Equivalent results for offspring being in the top 10% waist circumference were 1.91 (1.67, 2.18) comparing obese/overweight to normal weight mothers and 1.72 (1.53, 1.95) comparing obese/overweight to normal weight fathers. Similarly, results for offspring being in the top 10% of percent fat mass were 1.58 (1.36, 1.84) and 1.76 (1.49, 2.07), for mother's and father's obese/overweight exposures respectively. There was no strong or consistent evidence of gender assortment--i.e. associations of maternal adiposity exposures with offspring outcomes were similar in magnitude for their daughters compared to equivalent associations in their sons and paternal associations were also similar in sons and daughters.These findings suggest that genetic and/or shared familial environment explain family clustering of adiposity. Interventions aimed at changing overall family lifestyle are likely to be important for population level obesity prevention

The Profile of Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) research in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region: Analyzing the NCD burden, research outputs and international research collaboration.

OBJECTIVES: Despite the rising risk factor exposure and non-communicable disease (NCD) mortality across the Middle East and the North African (MENA) region, public health policy responses have been slow and appear discordant with the social, economic and political circumstances in each country. Good health policy and outcomes are intimately linked to a research-active culture, particularly in NCD. In this study we present the results of a comprehensive analysis of NCD research with particular a focus on cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular disease in 10 key countries that represent a spectrum across MENA between 1991 and 2018. METHODS: The study uses a well validated bibliometric approach to undertake a quantitative analysis of research output in the ten leading countries in biomedical research in the MENA region on the basis of articles and reviews in the Web of Science database. We used filters for each of the three NCDs and biomedical research to identify relevant papers in the WoS. The countries selected for the analyses were based on the volume of research outputs during the period of analysis and stability, included Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. RESULTS: A total of 495,108 biomedical papers were found in 12,341 journals for the ten MENA countries (here we consider Turkey in the context of MENA). For all three NCDs, Turkey's output is consistently the highest. Iran has had considerable growth in research output to occupy second place across all three NCDs. It appears that, relative to their wealth (measured by GDP), some MENA countries, particularly Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, are substantially under-investing in biomedical research. In terms of investment on particular NCDs, we note the relatively greater commitment on cancer research compared with diabetes or cardiovascular disease in most MENA countries, despite cardiovascular disease causing the greatest health-related burden. When considering the citation impact of research outputs, there have been marked rises in citation scores in Qatar, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates and Oman. However, Turkey, which has the largest biomedical research output in the Middle East has the lowest citation scores overall. The level of intra-regional collaboration in NCD research is highly variable. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are the dominant research collaborators across the MENA region. However, Turkey and Iran, which are amongst the leading research-active countries in the area, show little evidence of collaboration. With respect to international collaboration, the United States and United Kingdom are the dominant research partners across the region followed by Germany and France. CONCLUSION: The increase in research activity in NCDs across the MENA region countries during the time period of analysis may signal both an increasing focus on NCDs which reflects general global trends, and greater investment in research in some countries. However, there are several risks to the sustainability of these improvements that have been identified in particular countries within the region. For example, a lack of suitably trained researchers, low political commitment and poor financial support, and minimal international collaboration which is essential for wider global impact

Bone Mass and Strength are Significantly Improved in Mice Overexpressing Human WNT16 in Osteocytes

Recently, we demonstrated that osteoblast-specific overexpression of human WNT16 increased both cortical and trabecular bone mass and structure in mice. To further identify the cell-specific role of Wnt16 in bone homeostasis, we created transgenic (TG) mice overexpressing human WNT16 in osteocytes using Dmp1 promoter (Dmp1-hWNT16 TG) on C57BL/6 (B6) background. We analyzed bone phenotypes and serum bone biomarkers, performed gene expression analysis and measured dynamic bone histomorphometry in Dmp1-hWNT16 TG and wild-type (WT) mice. Compared to WT mice, Dmp1-hWNT16 TG mice exhibited significantly higher whole-body, spine and femoral aBMD, BMC and trabecular (BV/TV, Tb.N, and Tb.Th) and cortical (bone area and thickness) parameters in both male and female at 12 weeks of age. Femur stiffness and ultimate force were also significantly improved in the Dmp1-hWNT16 TG female mice, compared to sex-matched WT littermates. In addition, female Dmp1-hWNT16 TG mice displayed significantly higher MS/BS, MAR and BFR/BS compared to the WT mice. Gene expression analysis demonstrated significantly higher mRNA level of Alp in both male and female Dmp1-hWNT16 TG mice and significantly higher levels of Osteocalcin, Opg and Rankl in the male Dmp1-hWNT16 TG mice in bone tissue compared to sex-matched WT mice. These results indicate that WNT16 plays a critical role for acquisition of both cortical and trabecular bone mass and strength. Strategies designed to use WNT16 as a target for therapeutic interventions will be valuable to treat osteoporosis and other low bone mass conditions