Teaching College Economics in a High School Setting: Lessons Learned and Implementation Strategies

Interest in exposing high school seniors to college level economics has risen in recent years. Under one delivery option, a dual-enrollment program, students are concurrently enrolled in college and high school, and receive credit at both institutions for the same course. These programs benefit high schools by increasing the academic rigor in the senior year, and may also aid colleges' external relations and recruitment. Colleges and universities considering such a program must recognize important administrative and student body differences between the university and high school settings. This paper summarizes the experiences of Southern Illinois University, where a dual-enrollment program was implemented in the mid 1990s, and uses this case to illustrate key differences between the two classroom environments. Suggested strategies for coping with these differences are described.

Binary open clusters in the Milky Way: photometric and spectroscopic analysis of NGC 5617 and Trumpler 22

Using photometry and high resolution spectroscopy we investigate for the first time the physical connection between the open clusters NGC 5617 and Trumpler 22. Based on new CCD photometry we report their spatial proximity and common age of ~70 Myr. Based on high resolution spectra collected using the HERMES and UCLES spectrographs on the Anglo-Australian telescope, we present radial velocities and abundances for Fe, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca and Ni. The measured radial velocities are -38.63 +/-2.25 km/s for NGC 5617 and -38.46 +/-2.08 km/s for Trumpler 22. The mean metallicity of NGC 5617 was found to be [Fe/H] =-0.18 +/-0.02 and for Trumpler 22 was found to be [Fe/H] = -0.17 +/-0.04. The two clusters share similar abundances across the other elements, indicative of a common chemical enrichment history of these clusters. Together with common motions and ages we confirm that NGC 5617 and Trumpler 22 are a primordial binary cluster pair in the Milky Way.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure, accepted by MNRA

Paediatric Recurrent Ear, Nose and Throat Infections and Complications: Can We Do More?

Recurrent respiratory tract infections (rRTIs), of which there are three main groups—otitis media, tonsillitis and sinusopathies—are very common in paediatric populations and are associated with significant morbidity and mortality due to complications. These infections substantially reduce quality of life for paediatric patients and their families and are a significant personal, medical and economic burden on the patients, the patients’ families and the healthcare system. Most rRTIs are of viral origin; however, indiscriminate use of antibiotics in their treatment has led to development of bacterial resistance. Effective management of rRTIs to reduce the burden of disease and to avoid overuse of antibiotics has become a great therapeutic challenge. New strategies for the management of paediatric rRTIs include focus on prevention using non-specific immunomodulators to boost the body’s natural defences against infection and to downregulate infection- and allergen-induced airway inflammation. The oral immunomodulator, OM-85, a bacterial lysate, acts on the innate and adaptive branches of the immune system, conferring protection against viral and bacterial infections, and controls inflammation, thereby reducing tissue damage. OM-85 has demonstrated good tolerability and clinical efficacy in reducing the number and duration of RTIs in children with recurrent airway infections. It has also been reported to reduce the use of concomitant medications, including antibiotics, time to cure and school absenteeism. OM-85 is efficacious and well tolerated when administered concomitantly with inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) and has been shown to reduce wheezing attacks induced by RTI in young children. Clinical results show that the greater the risk of rRTIs, the greater the benefit with OM-85. OM-85 may be considered a promising tool to add to the limited armamentarium of the ear, nose and throat (ENT) physician dealing with rRTIs and their complications, such as recurrent wheeze and asthma inception

From Old Labour to New Labour: a comment on Rubinstein

In a critique of our book New Labour, David Rubinstein has argued that we exaggerate the degree of difference between Old and New Labour and underplay the similarities. In this article we agree with many of the continuities that Rubinstein outlines. However, we argue that he himself gives plenty of evidence in favour of our thesis that change has been marked in many policy areas. We argue that we give a good account of the wider social factors that he says accounts for such change. In this article we offer a restatement of the view that New Labour offers a `post-Thatcherite politics. New Labour breaks both with post-war social democracy and with Thatcherism

Bjerrum pairing correlations at charged interfaces

Electrostatic correlations play a fundamental role in aqueous solutions. In this letter, we identify transverse and lateral correlations as two mutually exclusive regimes. We show that the transverse regime leads to binding by generalization of Bjerrum pair formation theory, yielding binding constants from first-principle statistical-mechanical calculations. We compare our theoretical predictions with experiments on charged membranes and Langmuir monolayers and find good agreement. We contrast our approach with existing theories in the strong-coupling limit and on charged modulated interfaces, and discuss different scenarios that lead to charge reversal and equal-sign attraction by macro-ions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Building the Galactic halo from globular clusters: evidence from chemically unusual red giants

We present a spectroscopic search for halo field stars that originally formed in globular clusters. Using moderate-resolution SDSS-III/SEGUE-2 spectra of 561 red giants with typical halo metallicities (-1.8 < [Fe/H] < -1.0), we identify 16 stars, 3% of the sample, with CN and CH bandstrength behavior indicating depleted carbon and enhanced nitrogen abundances relative to the rest of the data set. Since globular clusters are the only environment known in which stars form with this pattern of atypical light-element abundances, we claim that these stars are second-generation globular cluster stars that have been lost to the halo field via normal cluster mass-loss processes. Extrapolating from theoretical models of two-generation globular cluster formation, this result suggests that globular clusters contributed significant numbers of stars to the construction of the Galactic halo: we calculate that a minimum of 17% of the present-day mass of the stellar halo was originally formed in globular clusters. The ratio of CN-strong to CN-normal stars drops with Galactocentric distance, suggesting that the inner-halo population may be the primary repository of these stars.Comment: 9 pages including 8 figures, A&A accepte

Screening of healthcare workers for tuberculosis: development and validation of a new health economic model to inform practice

Methods for determining cost-effectiveness of different treatments are well established, unlike appraisal of non-drug interventions, including novel diagnostics and biomarkers

Improving the annual review of diabetic patients in primary care: an appreciative inquiry in the Cape Town District Health Services

Background: Diabetes in a common chronic disease in the Cape Town District Health Services and yet an audit of diabetic care demonstrated serious deficiencies in the quality of care. The Metro District Health Services (MDHS) decided to focus on improving the annual review of the diabetic patient. The MDHS provides primary care to the uninsured population of Cape Town through a network of 45 Community Health Centres (CHC). Methods: An appreciative inquiry was established amongst the staff responsible for diabetic care at the 15 CHCs that had newly appointed facility managers. The inquiry completed three cycles of action-reflection over a period of one year and included training in clinical skills as requested by the participants. At the end of the inquiry a consensus was reached on the learning of the group. Results: This consensus was expressed in the form of 11 key themes. CHCs that reported success with improving the annual review formed chronic care teams that met regularly to discuss their goals, roles and to plan improvements. These teams developed more structured and systematic approaches to care, which included the creation of special clubs, attention to the steps in patient flow and methods of summarising and accessing key information. These teams also appointed specific champions who would not rotate to other duties and who would provide continuity of leadership and organisation. These teams also supported continuity of relationships, clinical management and organisation of care. Teams involved the community and local non-profit organisations, particularly in the establishment of support groups that could disseminate medications and build health literacy and self-efficacy. Some teams emphasised the need to also care for the carers and to not just focus on workload and output indicators. More successful CHCs also grappled with balancing of the workload, quality of care and waiting times in a way that improved all three in an upward spiral. Patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction and clinical outcomes were seen as interlinked' There was a need to plan methods for empowering patients and build self-efficacy through a variety of facility- and community-based as well as individual- and group-orientated initiatives. Training in clinical skills was requested for foot and eye screening. Feedback was given to the MDHS on the need to improve referral pathways and access to preventative services such as dieticians, podiatrists and vascular surgery. Finally, the inquiry process itself together with the annual audit supported organisational learning and change at the facility level. Conclusion: Improving the annual review has more to do with the organisation of care than gaps in knowledge or skills that can be addressed through training. While such gaps do exist, as shown by the training around foot screening, the main focus was on issues of leadership, teamwork, systematic organisation, continuity, staff satisfaction, motivation and the balancing of quality care provided, quantity of care demanded and queuing required. The appreciative inquiry (Al) process supported decentralised organisational learning and, while key themes were shared, the specific solutions were localised