The social cognition of medical knowledge, with special reference to childhood epilepsy

This paper arose out of an engagement in medical communication courses at a Gulf university. It deploys a theoretical framework derived from a (critical) sociocognitive approach to discourse analysis in order to investigate three aspects of medical discourse relating to childhood epilepsy: the cognitive processes that are entailed in relating different types of medical knowledge to their communicative context; the types of medical knowledge that are constituted in the three different text types analysed; and the relationship between these different types of medical knowledge and the discursive features of each text type. The paper argues that there is a cognitive dimension to the human experience of understanding and talking about one specialized from of medical knowledge. It recommends that texts be studied in medical communication courses not just in terms of their discrete formal features but also critically, in terms of the knowledge which they produce, transmit and reproduce

Stock Selection Strategies in Emerging Markets

Recent empirical evidence suggests that value and momentum strategies generate significant excess returns in emerging markets. We confirm these results and extend them in several directions. First, we examine a broader range of stock selection strategies, including strategies based on analysts' earnings revisions. We also consider multivariate strategies, whereby stocks are selected on multiple characteristics, and find that this enhances the overall performance. Excess returns also increase if country selection is incorporated into the strategies, but the risk of the strategies increases proportionally. Second, we test whether the strategies can be implemented successfully in practice by a large institutional investor, facing a lack of liquidity, restrictions on foreign ownership and substantial transaction costs. We find that even under such more realistic circumstances the strategies earn significant excess returns. Third, we examine several popular explanations for the excess returns. We find no evidence of higher market risk or lower liquidity of the strategies. Instead, based on the developments of earnings and earnings revisions after portfolio formation, we find that the results are consistent with behavioral explanations

Permian trace fossils attributed to tetrapods (Tierberg Formation, Karoo Basin, South Africa)

The discovery of a paving slab with a number of prints suggestive of footprints of tetrapods led to a reinvestigation of a trace fossil, known from three localities, of which only two photographs had been published, each with only four prints. The slab was traced to a previously unrecorded site, De Puts, near Calvinia, located in the Tierberg Formation of the Ecca Group of the Karoo Supergroup. The prints from all the sites are referred to Broomichnium permianum Kuhn 1958, of which Quadrispinichna parvia of Anderson 1974 is a synonym.Palaeo-Anthropology Scientific Trust; French Embassy in South Africa; Co-operation and Cultural Servic

Palaeozoic insects of southern Africa: a review

Although a substantial number of Triassic insect fossils have been discovered in southern Africa, relatively few insect fossils are known from the Permian deposits of this region. Fossil insects from the Permian period elsewhere, including the extensive entomological fauna from Eastern Europe (including Russia), Brazil and Australia is well-documented. The Irati Formation in the Parana Basin of Brazil, the temporal and lithological correlate of the Permian Whitehill Formation of South Africa, has yielded fossil insects belonging to Homoptera, N europtera, Coleoptera and Mecoptera. Fossil insects from the Whitehill Formation are usually poorly preserved and only seven specimens are mentioned in the literature. An overview is given of the more recent discoveries of Permian fossil insects in South Africa. This includes the discovery of the oldest beetle in Africa, the oldest longhorned grasshopper in the Southern Hemisphere and a survey of the Permian insects from the Beaufort Group of Natal. Reasons for the paucity of Permian insects are briefly discussed.Palaeo-Anthropology Scientific Trust; French Embassy in South Africa; Co-operation and Cultural Servic

Green schoolyards as outdoor learning environments:Barriers and solutions as experienced by primary school teachers

With a growing number of primary schools around the globe greening their schoolyards, opportunities arise to realize outdoor learning in natural areas on the school’s premises. Despite their promising potential, green schoolyards as outdoor learning environments remain mostly unintegrated in teachers’ educational practices. In the current study, teachers of five primary schools in Netherlands were followed for two consecutive years during a participatory action research project. Based on their experiences in this project, teachers identified barriers when integrating the green schoolyard as a learning environment and found practice-based solutions to overcome these barriers. Across schools, a total of 20 meetings were organized, with 75 teachers participating in the project. Results revealed four broad themes encompassing barriers and solutions. Teachers feel hindered by outdoor learning having no formal status in their current educational practice, experience barriers related to a lack of confidence in their own outdoor teaching expertise, find it difficult to get started, and experience barriers related to physical constraints. Teachers, professionals, and researchers together found solutions to overcome each specific barrier. These solutions can be translated to general recommendations: just do it, get educated and inspired, engage in real-life experiences, get an outdoor pedagogical mindset, and follow a tailored process. The findings can be used by primary schools and other institutions to develop interventions that support teachers to further integrate the green schoolyard as a learning environment

Economic Development and Infrastructure: The Case of Balochistan Province

In designing a future road network, public budget constraints force administrations to make choices. The objective of economic development requires that both efficiency and equity are taken into account. The present analysis operationalises these two concepts by social and economic accessibility in Balochistan. It suggests priorities which can serve as an input for the design of the future road network

Consistent treatment of hydrophobicity in protein lattice models accounts for cold denaturation

The hydrophobic effect stabilizes the native structure of proteins by minimizing the unfavourable interactions between hydrophobic residues and water through the formation of a hydrophobic core. Here we include the entropic and enthalpic contributions of the hydrophobic effect explicitly in an implicit solvent model. This allows us to capture two important effects: a length-scale dependence and a temperature dependence for the solvation of a hydrophobic particle. This consistent treatment of the hydrophobic effect explains cold denaturation and heat capacity measurements of solvated proteins.Comment: Added and corrected references for design procedure in main text (p. 2) and in Supplemental Information (p. 8