Struggling to maintain diversity: The marginalisation of Playcentre in government early childhood education and care policy

 Playcentre is a parent cooperative early childhood service where parents are trained and supported as the educators in the service. Once considered a ‘mainstream’ service, policy has increasingly marginalised Playcentres in favour of supporting teacher-led services. This article gives a background of parent cooperative services, and then reviews policies of the fifth National government from 2008, with an emphasis on how these policies have accommodated or excluded Playcentre. This review is presented as an argument for maintaining diversity in the early childhood education and care sector by developing policy which accommodates parent cooperative services

Struggling to maintain diversity: The marginalisation of Playcentre in government early childhood education and care policy

 Playcentre is a parent cooperative early childhood service where parents are trained and supported as the educators in the service. Once considered a ‘mainstream’ service, policy has increasingly marginalised Playcentres in favour of supporting teacher-led services. This article gives a background of parent cooperative services, and then reviews policies of the fifth National government from 2008, with an emphasis on how these policies have accommodated or excluded Playcentre. This review is presented as an argument for maintaining diversity in the early childhood education and care sector by developing policy which accommodates parent cooperative services

Acculturation Level, Generational Status and Gender: Their Role in Acculturative Stress in Young Adolescent Mexican Americans

The purpose of this study was to determine relationships between acculturation level, generational status, and gender with acculturative stress. Acculturation level was determined by the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II (ARSMA-II) and acculturative stress was determined by the Societal, Attitudinal, Familial and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale-Children's Version (SAFE-C). Subjects included 1268 Hispanic children ages 11-15. In order to validate the usefulness of the ARSMA-II with this sample, analyses were conducted between acculturation level and generational status. The Pearson product moment correlation (r=.44) and the ANOVA between the mean acculturation score and generational status were significant. However, the mean acculturation score from this study was considerably lower than the ARSMA-II score; therefore, new acculturation levels were developed to establish local adolescent norms for the ARSMA-II. All analyses involving acculturation levels were conducted using both the ARSMA-II and new acculturation levels because 300 subjects were reclassified with the new norms. Significant results were similar using both acculturation levels; however, there were more between group differences using the new acculturation levels. It was hypothesized that as acculturation level increased toward the Anglo culture, acculturative stress would decrease. The one-way ANOVA confirmed this relationship. It was also hypothesized that as generational status increased, acculturative stress would decrease. A one-way ANOVA also supported this hypothesis. In order to replicate previous findings on gender, a one-way ANOVA was conducted with acculturative stress and acculturation level. Results for both were non-significant. Overall findings indicate that generational status and acculturation level have a significant impact on acculturative stress in Hispanic children; however, gender does not seem to be a factor. Findings emphasize the importance of addressing cultural issues in the assessment, intervention, and treatment of acculturating Hispanic children. Furthermore, the ARSMA-II appears to be a useful instrument in assessing acculturation level in young adolescent Hispanics though new local adolescent norms for the ARSMA-II were developed from this study

Playcentre Parents-as-Educators: Links between Background Experiences and Teaching Practice

Playcentres are unique Aotearoa/New Zealand sessional early childhood education services which are run as parent cooperatives, where the parents take on the role of educators in the centre. This study investigated the way parents-as-educators used their life experiences, skills and knowledges in their teaching practice. Case studies were completed for four parents-as-educators in one urban Playcentre during one 10 week school term, using observations of teaching practice and document analysis, a short questionnaire and individual interviews. Teaching practice was then described using a framework based on McWilliam, de Kruif and Zulli's (2002) four contexts of teaching. Results were analysed using Rogoff's (2003) personal, interpersonal and cultural planes of analysis and Reid and Stover's (2005) model of individual agency. The parents-as-educators primarily drew on their parenting experiences to inform their teaching practice, and were selective in applying other prior skills and knowledges, based on their current interests and passions and on specific choices about their future life paths. The utilisation of their background in their teaching practice was also influenced by their individual agency. This depended on their changing sense of belonging within the centre, on the context of the sessions which included interactions between adults and responses from the children, and on their perception of, and alignment with, Playcentre philosophy. Implications of the findings suggest that Playcentres should look for ways of empowering parents-as-educators to use their background skills and knowledges whilst respecting their choices, so that the children in the centres experience as rich a curriculum as possible. To do this Playcentre philosophy should be more openly debated. This is because the philosophy of parents and children learning together added to group cohesiveness and empowered the parents-as-educators, yet other philosophical tenets, such as child-centredness and the approach to teaching art, created tension and constrained the parents-as-educators from fully using their background in their teaching practice

Validation of the 6-Item Cognitive Impairment Test and the 4AT test for combined delirium and dementia screening in older Emergency Department attendees

Background screening for cognitive impairment in Emergency Department (ED) requires short, reliable tools. Objective to validate the 4AT and 6-Item Cognitive Impairment Test (6-CIT) for ED dementia and delirium screening. Design diagnostic accuracy study. Setting/subjects attendees aged ≥70 years in a tertiary care hospital’s ED. Methods: trained researchers assessed participants using the Standardised Mini Mental State Examination, Delirium Rating Scale-Revised 98 and Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly, informing ultimate expert diagnosis using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) criteria for dementia and delirium (reference standards). Another researcher blindly screened each participant, within 3 h, using index tests 4AT and 6-CIT.Resultof 419 participants (median age 77 years), 15.2% had delirium and 21.5% had dementia. For delirium detection, 4AT had positive predictive value (PPV) 0.68 (95% confidence intervals: 0.58–0.79) and negative predictive value (NPV) 0.99 (0.97–1.00). At a pre-specified 9/10 cut-off (9 is normal), 6-CIT had PPV 0.35 (0.27–0.44) and NPV 0.98 (0.95–0.99). Importantly, 52% of participants had no family present. A novel algorithm for scoring 4AT item 4 where collateral history is unavailable (score 4 if items 2–3 score ≥1; score 0 if items 1–3 score is 0) proved reliable; PPV 0.65 (0.54–0.76) and NPV 0.99 (0.97–1.00). For dementia detection, 4AT had PPV 0.39 (0.32–0.46) and NPV 0.94 (0.89–0.96); 6-CIT had PPV 0.46 (0.37–0.55) and NPV 0.94 (0.90–0.97). Conclusion: 6-CIT and 4AT accurately exclude delirium and dementia in older ED attendees. 6-CIT does not require collateral history but has lower PPV for delirium

Professional Education to Reduce Provider Stigma Toward Harm Reduction and Pharmacotherapy

Aims: A novel professional training was developed to reduce stigma toward harm reduction and pharmacotherapy for substance use disorders. Methods: The training was delivered over three sessions to n = 147 health professionals in Utah between 2019 and 2020, including n = 40 substance use disorder treatment professionals. Pre and post-training survey measures provided evaluation information on knowledge, attitudes, and planned action regarding harm reduction and pharmacotherapy. Items were grouped into a stigma score, and multilevel modeling, regression analyses, and McNemar tests were used to quantify changes in overall stigma toward harm reduction interventions both before and after the training. Results: The training significantly decreased the total stigma score toward harm reduction (b = -0.09, p \u3c .001, β = -0.34). At the individual item level, 6 of the 22 items showed significant change in reduced stigma (all p \u3c .047), and all items moved in the direction of decreased stigma. These items include both attitudes and planned action aspects of the total stigma score. Conclusions: This study suggests that education targeting prejudice and discriminatory actions against harm reduction and pharmacotherapy interventions among healthcare professionals may contribute to stigma reduction. These results provide a basis for intervention effectiveness, addressing preconceived ideas, and show community need for such substance use interventions, as a component of future stigma reduction efforts

Cross-Cultural Collaborations for Addressing Opioid Use Disorder in Utah

Cross-cultural collaboration allows for more effective interventions for opioid use disorder among tribal communities. Practicing cultural humility, incorporating Indigenous knowledge, and amplifying Indigenous voices are crucial to the cross-cultural collaboration process. This process can ensure that interventions that address opioid use disorder meet the needs of tribal communities

Visualization of Coronary Wall Atherosclerosis in Asymptomatic Subjects and Patients with Coronary Artery Disease Using Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is sensitive to early atherosclerotic changes such as positive remodeling in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). We assessed prevalence, quality, and extent of coronary atherosclerosis in a group of healthy subjects compared to patients with confirmed CAD. Methodology: Twenty-two patients with confirmed CAD (15M, 7F, mean age 60.4±10.4 years) and 26 healthy subjects without history of CAD (11M, 15F, mean age 56.1±4.4 years) underwent MRI of the right coronary artery (RCA) and vessel wall (MR-CVW) on a clinical 1.5T MR-scanner. Wall thickness measurements of both groups were compared. Principal Findings: Stenoses of the RCA (both < and ≥50% on CAG) were present in all patients. In 21/22 patients, stenoses detected at MRI corresponded to stenoses detected with conventional angiography. In 19/26 asymptomatic subjects, there was visible luminal narrowing in the MR luminography images. Fourteen of these subjects demonstrated corresponding increase in vessel wall thickness. In 4/26 asymptomatic subjects, vessel wall thickening without luminal narrowing was present. Maximum and mean wall thicknesses in patients were significantly higher (2.16 vs 1.92 mm, and 1.38 vs 1.22 mm, both p<0.05). Conclusions: In this cohort of middle-aged individuals, both patients with stable angina and angiographically proven coronary artery disease, as well as age-matched asymptomatic subjects. exhibited coronary vessel wall thickening detectable with MR coronary vessel wall imaging. Maximum and mean wall thicknesses were significantly higher in patients. The vast majority of asymptomatic subjects had either positive remodeling without luminal narrowing, or non-significant stenosis. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00456950

Expressions 1986

https://openspace.dmacc.edu/expressions/1007/thumbnail.jp

Chemical analysis of Greek pollen - Antioxidant, antimicrobial and proteasome activation properties

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pollen is a bee-product known for its medical properties from ancient times. In our days is increasingly used as health food supplement and especially as a tonic primarily with appeal to the elderly to ameliorate the effects of ageing. In order to evaluate the chemical composition and the biological activity of Greek pollen which has never been studied before, one sample with identified botanical origin from sixteen different common plant taxa of Greece has been evaluated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Three different extracts of the studied sample of Greek pollen, have been tested, in whether could induce proteasome activities in human fibroblasts. The water extract was found to induce a highly proteasome activity, showing interesting antioxidant properties. Due to this activity the aqueous extract was further subjected to chemical analysis and seven flavonoids have been isolated and identified by modern spectral means. From the methanolic extract, sugars, lipid acids, phenolic acids and their esters have been also identified, which mainly participate to the biosynthetic pathway of pollen phenolics. The total phenolics were estimated with the Folin-Ciocalteau reagent and the total antioxidant activity was determined by the DPPH method while the extracts and the isolated compounds were also tested for their antimicrobial activity by the dilution technique.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The Greek pollen is rich in flavonoids and phenolic acids which indicate the observed free radical scavenging activity, the effects of pollen on human fibroblasts and the interesting antimicrobial profile.</p