Supporting the social and learning needs of introverted students in primary school

Abstract. This thesis aims to find methods of supporting introverted students in their learning and social needs through reviewing founding and current literature. The objectives of this literature review include understanding the individual style with which introverted students learn and work the most efficiently, so that educators are better equipped to support their learning. Temperament influences a person’s reactions to their environment around them and materializes in interactions with the environment and other people. Temperament traits are not inherently good or bad, but their value is in how well they fit with the surrounding environment, a concept referred to as goodness of fit. In the context of education, temperament outlines the distinct way in which a child responds to stimulants in the school environment. It influences every aspect of school life, including academic performance and social interactions and relations. Temperament cannot be ignored in the context of education, as it shapes how students learn, process information, interact with their classmates and react to new learning. It is imperative that educators understand the implications of temperament in their instructional choices as well as their perceptions of and attitudes towards their students. Culture shapes the way in which temperament traits are perceived, and in western culture the outgoing, talkative and charismatic extrovert is seen as the ideal personality for success in society. Schools reflect these societal values and introverted students are placed at a disadvantage in achieving this success as a result of their innate temperament. Introversion is characterized by a quiet, reflective and reserved demeanor and the movement of energy towards the inner world. Biologically, introversion is characterized by a high level of internal stimulation which results in a need to limit external stimulants to balance their level of cortical arousal. The qualities attributed to introversion are often misinterpreted and cast in a negative light. Educators can support introverted learners by providing opportunities for independent and small group learning, ensuring that there is sufficient time for reflection and creating a safe, non-judgmental space for learning. Teachers should acknowledge introverts’ need for alone time and understand that engagement and active participation can look different for different learners. Educators should ensure that their assessment of student achievement is not coloured by their perceptions of temperament or what is a “good student”. The best way to support introverted students is not to change their temperament but to give them the tools to overcome the challenges that may accompany it

Co-development of the CMAP Book: a tool to enhance children's participation in pediatric rehabilitation

Purpose The purpose of the co-development project was to create a tool that enhances children's active participation and agency in rehabilitation and in everyday life. Materials and methods Action research was the methodological approach. Participants in the different phases of the process (2015-2017) were children with disabilities, parents and rehabilitation professionals. The co-development process included: (1) designing the tool's first version, (2) piloting the tool, (3) evaluating the tool by collecting feedback and reflection, (4) generating the tool's final version. Results Through the co-development process, an accommodating and digital tool called the CMAP Book-a description of the child's meaningful activities and participation-was developed. The CMAP Book is used with an electronic app enabling the identification and description of what is meaningful in daily life from the child's perspective with videos, photos, pictures, recording and writing. The tool enables the child, family and professionals to prepare and build collaboration in rehabilitation with flexibility according to child and family needs. Conclusions Use of the CMAP Book promotes the active involvement of the child and parents in designing the rehabilitation process in daily life in partnership with professionals. The stakeholder involvement in the co-development facilitated meaningful results and a concrete tool for rehabilitation.Peer reviewe

Adolescent attachment to parents and peers in singletons and twins born with assisted and natural conception

STUDY QUESTION Does adolescent attachment to parents and peers differ between singletons and twins born with ART or natural conception (NC)? SUMMARY ANSWER Adolescent attachment anxiety with the father was higher among NC singletons than among ART and NC twins, whereas attachment avoidance with the father was higher in ART singletons than in NC singletons and NC twins. No differences were found in attachment to the mother, best friend or romantic partner. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Most studies have not found differences between ART and NC singletons in parent-adolescent relationships, but twin relationships may be more at risk. No previous study has examined all four groups in the same study, or specifically looked at attachment relationships. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION This was an 18-year, prospective and controlled longitudinal study with families of 496 ART singletons, 101 ART twin pairs, 476 NC singletons and 22 NC twin pairs. Families were recruited during the second trimester of pregnancy; the ART group was recruited from five infertility clinics in Finland and the control group was recruited from a hospital outpatient clinic during a routine visit. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Mothers and fathers gave background information for this study during pregnancy, and during the child's first year and early school age (7-8 years). For the ART group, infertility characteristics and prenatal medical information was also obtained from the patient registry of the infertility clinics. Children (originally 50% girls) filled in electronic questionnaires related to their attachment to mother, father, best friend and romantic partner (Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures) at 17-19 years of age. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Adolescent attachment anxiety to father was higher in NC singletons than in ART twins, P = 0.004 and marginally higher than in NC twins, P = 0.06. Adolescent attachment avoidance to father was higher in ART singletons than in NC singletons, P = 0.006 and marginally higher than in NC twins, P = 0.055. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION The sample size was small especially in the NC twin group and there was drop-out over the 18-year time period, especially among boys and families with lower parental education level. The study only included native Finnish-speaking families. The results could differ in a more diverse population. ART singletons were younger and had fewer siblings than ART twins and NC children, and ART and NC twins had more newborn health risks than ART and NC singletons. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS The study adds to a growing body of evidence that neither ART treatments nor being a twin places mother-child relationships or peer relationships at long-term risk. However, in our study, which was the first to examine both ART and twinhood simultaneously, we found that there may be more problems in father-adolescent relationships, but only in ART singletons and only related to attachment avoidance. Our findings suggest that men, as well as women, should receive enough support in pre- and peri-natal health care during and after infertility treatments. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This study was funded by Academy of Finland (grant number 2501308988), the Juho Vainio Foundation and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The authors report no conflict of interest.Peer reviewe

Pilot study in human healthy volunteers on the use of magnetohydrodynamics in needle-free continuous glucose monitoring

The benefits of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) in diabetes management are extensively documented. Yet, the broader adoption of CGM systems is limited by their cost and invasiveness. Current CGM devices, requiring implantation or the use of hypodermic needles, fail to offer a convenient solution. We have demonstrated that magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is effective at extracting dermal interstitial fluid (ISF) containing glucose, without the use of needles. Here we present the first study of ISF sampling with MHD for glucose monitoring in humans. We conducted 10 glucose tolerance tests on 5 healthy volunteers and obtained a significant correlation between the concentration of glucose in ISF samples extracted with MHD and capillary blood glucose samples. Upon calibration and time lag removal, the data indicate a Mean Absolute Relative Difference (MARD) of 12.9% and Precision Absolute Relative Difference of 13.1%. In view of these results, we discuss the potential value and limitations of MHD in needle-free glucose monitoring.Peer reviewe

Young masculinities, purity and danger: Disparities in framings of boys and girls in policy discourses of sexualisation

One of the reasons why it is ‘hard to explain’ the lack of attention to boys in discourses in sexualisation is that approached head-on, it appears that the focus on girls has no logic and is merely accidental. One might point to the research that is beginning to emerge on the increased visibility of the male body in visual cultures (e.g. Gill, 2009) and to boys’ fashion and embodiment (e.g. Vandenbosch and Eggermont, 2013). However, we propose that the tendency towards a problematisation of girls’ fashion and deportment and the invisibility of boys within policy and media discourses on ‘sexualisation’ is a systemic effect of constructions of gender and sexual subjectivity. In our society, we argue, signifiers of feminine purity operate as a form of symbolic capital, a construction that is not attributed to boys and which is integral scaffolding for the depiction of a subject as threatened by sexualisation. To illustrate our theorising regarding the ‘sexualisation of boys’, we shall examine an apparent exception to the rule: the Papadopoulos Review (2010), which explicitly attends to the sexualisation of boys and ends up re-emphasising rather than analysing the gendered and classed discourses of sexualisation. The Papadopolous Review indicates a moment at which a problematisation of the sexualisation of boys could have been triggered – since attention to both boys and girls was specifically part of the remit of the review – but was not, for specific sociological reasons to do with which subjects are assessed against the criterion of innocence

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) Is Associated with Severe Sepsis and Fatal Disease in Emergency Room Patients with Suspected Infection: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background Early diagnostic and prognostic stratification of patients with suspected infection is a difficult clinical challenge. We studied plasma pentraxin 3 (PTX3) upon admission to the emergency department in patients with suspected infection. Methods The study comprised 537 emergency room patients with suspected infection: 59 with no systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and without bacterial infection (group 1), 67 with bacterial infection without SIRS (group 2), 54 with SIRS without bacterial infection (group 3), 308 with sepsis (SIRS and bacterial infection) without organ failure (group 4) and 49 with severe sepsis (group 5). Plasma PTX3 was measured on admission using a commercial solid-phase enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results The median PTX3 levels in groups 1–5 were 2.6 ng/ml, 4.4 ng/ml, 5.0 ng/ml, 6.1 ng/ml and 16.7 ng/ml, respectively (p<0.001). The median PTX3 concentration was higher in severe sepsis patients compared to others (16.7 vs. 4.9 ng/ml, p<0.001) and in non-survivors (day 28 case fatality) compared to survivors (14.1 vs. 5.1 ng/ml, p<0.001). A high PTX3 level predicted the need for ICU stay (p<0.001) and hypotension (p<0.001). AUCROC in the prediction of severe sepsis was 0.73 (95% CI 0.66–0.81, p<0.001) and 0.69 in case fatality (95% CI 0.58–0.79, p<0.001). PTX3 at a cut-off level for 14.1 ng/ml (optimal cut-off value for severe sepsis) showed 63% sensitivity and 80% specificity. At a cut-off level 7.7 ng/ml (optimal cut-off value for case fatality) showed 70% sensitivity and 63% specificity in predicting case fatality on day 28.In multivariate models, high PTX3 remained an independent predictor of severe sepsis and case fatality after adjusting for potential confounders. Conclusions A high PTX3 level on hospital admission predicts severe sepsis and case fatality in patients with suspected infection.Public Library of Science open acces

One size does not fit all:leader-member exchange and innovativeness

Abstract Individual-level innovativeness is widely acknowledged to be critical to the success of an organisation’s innovation, and understanding the related nuances is therefore important. The goal of this study is to add to existing knowledge on how managerial characteristics influence employee innovativeness. Specifically, we address the role of leader–member exchange (LMX) in predicting the three components of employee innovative work behaviour (IWB) — idea generation, idea promotion, and idea implementation. LMX denotes the quality of the relationship between an employee and his/her immediate supervisor and is a significant predictor of many employee attitudes and behaviours. Studies examining the direct and joint effects of LMX and other organisational characteristics on employee creativity and employee IWB have shown the LMX construct has a significant effect on employee innovativeness. However, a more nuanced view on the effects of LMX on the various components of IWB — idea generation, idea promotion, and idea implementation — is missing. Moreover, most research to date on LMX and innovation has focused on the potential linear connections between LMX and employee innovation-related outcomes, leaving the possible opportunities associated with low-quality LMX under-explored. This is a shortcoming, as a growing body of literature demonstrates that, under specific conditions, not only high but also low-quality LMX can be conducive for various employee outcomes. Analysing survey data collected from 93 employees of a knowledge-intensive service company, our study shows U-shaped and linear relationships between LMX and varying components of IWB. We further test an earlier presented assumption that perceived organisational support for innovation may emerge as a powerful contextual condition in relationships between employee innovativeness and its antecedents. We find that LMX and organisational support for innovation have a joint positive effect on the components of employee IWB. These findings extend innovation management theorising and provide advice for managers