The development of writing in four to seven year-old children: a longitudinal study

This longitudinal study investigates the factors at home and school that influence children's attainment and progress in writing at Key Stage 1. Sixty children between the ages of four and seven years in four Reading primaiy schools were tracked and data was collected in the term before they started school, at school entry, on a termly basis once in school and at the end of Key Stage 1. Semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, observation schedules, checklists and standardised assessments were used. Associations between measures and continuity over time were assessed using multiple regression analysis. Pre-school independent variables that were found to be significantly associated with writing proficiency at school entry included mother's educational level, family size, parental assessment of writing and a measure of home writing. Child characteristics, skills and competencies were measured at school entry and those found to be significantly associated with writing at outcome included season of birth, WPPSI-R vocabulary score, pre-reading skills and proficiency in writing their own name. The only pre-school variable that maintained its significant relationship to writing at outcome was home writing. Teacher assessments of pupil attitudes to writing were consistently found to be significantly associated with writing at outcome. Data from the termly writing samples indicated that only the handwriting assessment predicted general writing ability at seven years of age. Eight pupils were observed writing at two points in time and the records are discussed in terms of processes and products. Issues such as quality and quantity of writing generated are considered in relation to the development of component skills (e.g. handwriting, spelling, vocabulary), within the context of the curriculum and role of the teacher. The results confirm the complexity of learning to write for children at Key Stage I and developmental considerations are discussed in relation to policy and practice issues

Implicit Dependency Regulation: Self-Esteem, Relationship Closeness, and Implicit Evaluations of Close Others

We argue that people possess implicit evaluations of close others and that dependency regulation processes moderate these implicit evaluations. Study 1 revealed that implicit evaluations of romantic partners for people with high explicit self-esteem were not contingent on how things were currently going in their relationships. In contrast, the implicit evaluations of romantic partners for people with low explicit self-esteem were contingent on how things were currently going in their relationships. That is, people with low self-esteem liked their partners’ name letters only if the relationship was currently going well. Study 2 revealed a conceptually similar pattern of results for implicit evaluations of people’s best friends. We suggest that these findings reflect an unconscious form of dependency regulation

Comparison of Pilates and Hydraulic Circuit Training in Women

Introduction: Obesity continues to be a rising problem in the United States. Women typically are the majority of consumers in weight treatment programs. Due to conflicts with time and social roles, they struggle to remain committed to an exercise program. Most women enter into weight treatment programs not for health, but rather for appearance. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of cardiovascular function, flexibility, strength and circumferential measurements between mat Pilates and hydraulic circuit training over a six-week period. The benefits of these comparisons will help women find an effective and efficient fitness program. As the physical therapy field continues to advance into preventative healthcare, this study will provide information to physical therapists and consumers regarding well ness in women. This is important to aid in the prevention of possible injuries, co-morbidities and regain overall quality of life. These two programs were chosen for this study as they have increased in popularity in recent years. Methods: Nine healthy female subjects over the age of 18 who were beginners in their respective exercise program were included in this study. Six subjects were in the hydraulic circuit training group and three were in the mat Pilates group. Areas being . assessed include vital signs, strength, flexibility and circumferential measurements. These assessments were completed within one week of initiation of chosen program (initial) and six weeks later (final). Results: The results of this study were based on only seven of the subjects. This study found that there were no significant differences between groups from initial and final measurements. There was a significant difference in strength of left elbow flexion, flexibility and bust circumference in the hydraulic circuit training group from initial to final measurements. No statistical analysis was completed for the mat Pilates group as the sample size was too small. However, certain trends were noted. Conclusion: The results from this study show there are no significant differences between the hydraulic circuit training and Pilates groups. However, trends were seen in each group that shows the benefits of physical activity. Future studies in this area would be beneficial especially with longer follow-up periods to see the effects of these two exercise programs

Key Characteristics for Effective Teaching: Subject Qualifications or Something Else?

This research explored whether it was subject qualifications, or other behaviours or characteristics, that were key to teacher effectiveness. It also provided a response to government rhetoric that claims that the most effective teachers are those with the best subject specialist qualifications (DfE, 2010; DfE, 2011; DfE, 2016a; Foster, 2018; Teach First, 2018). This response is based on the findings of interpretivist research that explored stakeholder views and representations, through interviews and examination of teacher job advertisements, in secondary and further education. From the analysis of the data gathered, several themes emerged. The results of teacher subject qualifications were not a unique signal of teacher effectiveness for stakeholders. For educational leaders, these qualifications formed one aspect of the holistic view of the teacher that they are recruiting. Qualifications, to teachers and to educational leaders, formed only a partial proxy of knowledge required to teach. In acknowledging this, the research indicates that teacher passion is a more effective signal of teacher effectiveness than teacher qualifications. Therefore, a tripartite model of teacher passion, comprising facets of passion for teaching, passion for learning and passion for a teacher’s subject is presented. Specifically, the centrality of passion and enthusiasm to teacher effectiveness has reiterated teaching as an intrinsically motivated profession in which subject qualification results are not a unique signal of effectiveness. This highlights the need for change, away from a policy focus in relation to teacher subject qualifications, towards one which views subject qualifications holistically. The passion centric model of teacher effectiveness is presented as a model to support this and to aid wider teacher recruitment decision making and policy

Achieving change in primary care—causes of the evidence to practice gap : systematic reviews of reviews

Acknowledgements The Evidence to Practice Project (SPCR FR4 project number: 122) is funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research (SPCR). KD is part-funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Research and Care West Midlands and by a Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellowship (KMRF-2014-03-002) from the NIHR. This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. Funding This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Primary Care Research (SPCR).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural food security in high income countries : a systematic literature review

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, rural-dwelling people in high-income countries were known to have greater challenges accessing healthy food than their urban counterparts. The COVID19 pandemic has impacted food supplies across the world, and public health restrictions have changed the way people shop for food, potentially exacerbating food insecurity. This systematic literature review aimed to synthesize the available evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aspects of food insecurity in rural populations residing in high-income countries. Five electronic databases were searched, identifying 22 articles that assessed food insecurity prevalence or data on food availability, access, utilization and the stability of the food supply in rural populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten studies examined the prevalence of food insecurity in rural populations, with the reported prevalence ranging from 15% to 95%. Where rural/urban comparisons were presented, most studies (n = 5; 71%) reported that food insecurity was significantly higher in rural regions. Five studies examined the availability of food and eight studies examined access to food, identifying that rural populations often had lower food availability and access to food during the pandemic. In contrast, two studies identified positive effects such as more gardening and increased online access to food. Rural populations experienced multiple changes to food utilization, such as reduced diet quality and food safety observed in eight studies, but this was not shown to be different from urban populations. Additionally, the food supply in rural regions was perceived to be affected in two studies. The results of this review may be used to inform region-specific mitigation strategies to decrease the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic and future global events on food security. However, the lack of consistency in study outcomes in research on rural populations limits the identification of priority areas for intervention at a global-scale

Consumer‑driven strategies towards a resilient and sustainable food system following the COVID‑19 pandemic in Australia

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health restrictions temporarily disrupted food supply chains around the world and changed the way people shopped for food, highlighting issues with food systems resilience and sustainability. The aim of this study was to explore consumer-driven strategies towards a more resilient and sustainable food system in Australia, learning from experiences during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: During May–June 2020, a cross-sectional, online survey was conducted in Tasmania, Australia in a non-random sample of adults aged 18 years and over. The survey collected demographic data and posted the open-ended question: “How could Tasmania’s food system be better prepared for a disaster in the future?” Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the demographic data and thematic analysis was employed to analyse the qualitative data. Results: Survey respondents (n = 698) were predominantly female (79%), over 55 years of age (48%), university educated (70%) and living with dependents (45%). Seven key themes were identified: (i) balance food exports with local needs; (ii) strengthen local food systems; (iii) increase consumer awareness of food supply chains; (iv) build collaboration and connection in the food system; (v) embed clear contingency arrangements; (vi) support community capacity building and individual self-sufficiency; and (vii) the food system coped well. Conclusions: The consumer-driven strategies identified indicate multiple opportunities to increase resilience and sustainability in the food system to avoid future supply disruptions. Our findings indicate that considerable popular support for more resilient, local and sustainable food systems may be emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic

Implicitly imprinting the past on the present: Automatic partner attitudes and the transition to parenthood

A new model is proposed to explain how automatic partner attitudes affect how couples cope with major life transitions. The Automatic Partner Attitudes in Transition (APAT) model assumes that people simultaneously possess contextualized automatic attitudes toward their partner that can differ substantively in valence pre- and post-transition. It further assumes that evaluatively inconsistent pre- and post-transition automatic partner attitudes elicit heightened behavioral angst or uncertainty, self-protective behavior in response to risk, and relationship distress. A longitudinal study of the transition to first parenthood supported the model. People with evaluatively inconsistent automatic partner attitudes, whether more negative pre-transition and positive post-transition, or more positive pre-transition and negative post-transition, exhibited heightened evidence of cardiovascular threat discussing conflicts, increased self-protective behavior in response to parenting-related transgressions in daily interaction, and steeper declines in relationship well-being in the year following the transition to parenthood

Developmental toxicity study of sodium molybdate dihydrate administered in the diet to Sprague Dawley rats

AbstractMolybdenum is an essential nutrient for humans and animals and is a constituent of several important oxidase enzymes. It is normally absorbed from the diet and to a lesser extent from drinking water and the typical human intake is around 2μg/kg bodyweight per day. No developmental toxicity studies to contemporary standards have been published and regulatory decisions have been based primarily on older studies where the nature of the test material, or the actual dose levels consumed is uncertain.In the current study the developmental toxicity of sodium molybdate dihydrate as a representative of a broad class of soluble molybdenum(VI) compounds, was given in the diet to Sprague Dawley rats in accordance with OECD Test Guideline 414. Dose levels of 0, 3, 10, 20 and 40mgMo/kgbw/day were administered from GD6 to GD20. No adverse effects were observed at any dose level on the dams, or on embryofetal survival, fetal bodyweight, or development, with no increase in malformations or variations. Significant increases in serum and tissue copper levels were observed but no toxicity related to these was observed. The NOAEL observed in this study was 40mgMo/kgbw/day, the highest dose tested