Volunteer tourism : the new ecotourism?

One of the more recent forms of tourism to emerge is what has become known as Volunteer Tourism, the practice of individuals going on a working holiday, volunteering their labour for worthy causes. While volunteering is a well-established activity, the combination with tourism is relatively new and has already changed considerably over a very short period. This paper reviews the process by which volunteer tourism has developed, focusing on its transformation from an individual altruistic endeavour to a more commercial form of conventional tourism. The paper reviews the growth in number of websites devoted to volunteer tourism, and discusses the changes that have taken place in the content and focus of these websites, the locations used as destinations and the organisations they represent over the last two decades. It is apparent that over the last two decades the organisations offering volunteer tourist vacations have increasingly focused their attention on conventional commercial tourism markets which is a similar pattern of evolution to that of ecotourism. The paper concludes that volunteer tourism is likely to become increasingly diverse in scale, distribution and focus in the future, in the same way as ecotourism has broadened its market and appeal, but in so doing, will lose more of the distinctive features that characterized its initial form

First steps in mathematics - Number: understand operations, calculate, reason about number patterns

This series is designed to enhance teachers' professional judgements. It will enable teachers to diagnose, plan, implement and evaluate their student's learning experience

First steps in mathematics : measurement : understand units, direct measure

This resource book and professional development program is designed to help teachers to plan, implement and evaluate the maths curriculum provided for their students. Includes, a diagnostic map, outcomes, levels of achievement, pointers, key understandings, sample learning activities and background notes. Part of a series

First steps in mathematics : chance and data : improving the mathematics outcomes of students

This resource book and professional development program is designed to help teachers to plan, implement and evaluate the maths curriculum provided for their students. Includes, a diagnostic map, outcomes, levels of achievement, pointers, key understandings, sample learning activities and background notes. Part of a series

First steps in mathematics : Space : improving the mathematics outcomes of students

This resource book and professional development program is designed to help teachers to plan, implement and evaluate the maths curriculum provided for their students. Includes, a diagnostic map, outcomes, levels of achievement, pointers, key understandings, sample learning activities and background notes. Part of a series

Frequency and age at occurrence of clinical manifestations of disease in patients with hypophosphatasia: a systematic literature review

Abstract Background Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is a rare, inherited, metabolic disease caused by tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase deficiency, characterized by bone mineralization defects and systemic complications. Understanding of the clinical course and burden of HPP is limited by its rarity. This systematic literature review and synthesis of case report data aimed to determine the frequency and timing of clinical HPP manifestations and events. Methods Case reports and series of patients with HPP who had been followed longitudinally for ≥1 year were identified. Demographics and clinical data of interest, identified through consultation with clinical experts in HPP, were extracted. Occurrences of clinical manifestations/events of interest were categorized, classified by age at first reported occurrence of HPP manifestations and visualized over time. Clinical manifestations/events considered to contribute to the clinical burden of HPP were identified. Kaplan–Meier curves were used to estimate the median (range) age at first occurrence of the most frequently reported manifestations/events. Results From the 283 studies that met the inclusion criteria, 265 patients with HPP with ≥1 year of longitudinal follow-up were identified (median [interquartile range] age 4 [0–34] years; 45% male). The types of clinical manifestations/events of interest experienced by individuals with ≥1 such manifestation/event (n = 261) often differed between older and younger patients. Most (94%) of the 265 patients experienced ≥1 manifestation/event deemed to contribute to the clinical burden of HPP; premature tooth loss (53.5%), fractures (35.8%), pain (33.6%), and gross motor/ambulation difficulties (30.9%) were most frequently reported. The median (range) age at first reported occurrence of respiratory symptoms, cranial abnormalities, and premature tooth loss ranged from 0.3 to 10 years, whereas the median age at first reported occurrence of fractures, pain, gross motor/ambulation difficulties, and surgery ranged from 33 to 70 years. Conclusions HPP is associated with a high clinical burden of disease, regardless of age at first reported occurrence of HPP manifestations. Over an individual’s lifetime, the types of manifestations/events experienced can change and multiple HPP-related clinical manifestations/events can accumulate. These observations may reflect evolution and progression of the disease