The contribution of two funds of identity interventions to well-being related student outcomes in primary education

Drawing on students' ‘funds of identity’ is supposed to contribute to more equitable educational outcomes, both in terms of achievement and well-being-related outcomes. However, it is not obvious how teachers can uncover and use students' funds of identity (FoI) and little is known about the actual effects of an approach based on funds of identity theory. This study investigates the (perceived) effects on students' engagement, motivation for learning, school well-being, social initiative and self-efficacy of two different interventions in which four primary school teachers tried to uncover and use their students' FoI (N = 31). A mixed methods design was used. Observations were conducted before, during and after the FoI-interventions, teachers filled in questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and students. In order to track how the intervention was enacted, logbooks of teachers were collected. The quantitative results showed significant improvement of students' engagement and social initiative during the FoI-interventions, which was confirmed by the observations. In the interviews and logbooks teachers and students reported positive effects of the interventions on students' engagement, motivation for learning, school well-being and self-efficacy. The interventions from this study can serve as examples for other schools

Improvement of the quality of propagation material for organic farming system

The use of organic propagation material is obligatory according to the current EU regulations for organic production. However, frequently difficulties are en-countered regarding the availability, the costs or the quality. In the Netherlands a national research program aims at developing solutions, needed for improving the production of high quality organic propagation material. The main emphasis in the pro-gram is on the model crops cabbage, onion, wheat and potato. Individual projects within the program include epidemiological studies of seed borne dis-eases to develop disease prevention strategies, meth-ods to improve resistance of seeds and seedlings towards pathogens and methods to control silver scurf in seed potatoes, development of multi-spectral analysis and sorting techniques and methods for analysis and improvement of seed vigour. Active involvement of producers and users of the seeds or seed potatoes ensures that the results will be imple-mented in practice. The program also aims at strengthening the international collaboration, amongst others through involvement in international research projects

\u27Traffic-light\u27 nutrition labelling and \u27junk-food\u27 tax : a modelled comparison of cost-effectiveness for obesity prevention

Introduction: Cost-effectiveness analyses are important tools in efforts to prioritise interventions for obesity prevention.Modelling facilitates evaluation of multiple scenarios with varying assumptions. This study compares the cost-effectiveness ofconservative scenarios for two commonly proposed policy-based interventions: front-of-pack &lsquo;traffic-light&rsquo; nutrition labelling(traffic-light labelling) and a tax on unhealthy foods (&lsquo;junk-food&rsquo; tax).Methods: For traffic-light labelling, estimates of changes in energy intake were based on an assumed 10% shift in consumptiontowards healthier options in four food categories (breakfast cereals, pastries, sausages and preprepared meals) in 10% of adults. For the &lsquo;junk-food&rsquo; tax, price elasticities were used to estimate a change in energy intake in response to a 10% price increase in seven food categories (including soft drinks, confectionery and snack foods). Changes in population weight and body mass index by sex were then estimated based on these changes in population energy intake, along with subsequent impacts on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). Associated resource use was measured and costed using pathway analysis, based on a health sector perspective (with some industry costs included). Costs and health outcomes were discounted at 3%. The cost-effectiveness of each intervention was modelled for the 2003 Australian adult population.Results: Both interventions resulted in reduced mean weight (traffic-light labelling: 1.3 kg (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 1.2;1.4); &lsquo;junk-food&rsquo; tax: 1.6 kg (95% UI: 1.5; 1.7)); and DALYs averted (traffic-light labelling: 45 100 (95% UI: 37 700; 60 100);&lsquo;junk-food&rsquo; tax: 559 000 (95% UI: 459 500; 676 000)). Cost outlays were AUD81 million (95% UI: 44.7; 108.0) for traffic-lightlabelling and AUD18 million (95% UI: 14.4; 21.6) for &lsquo;junk-food&rsquo; tax. Cost-effectiveness analysis showed both interventions were&lsquo;dominant&rsquo; (effective and cost-saving).Conclusion: Policy-based population-wide interventions such as traffic-light nutrition labelling and taxes on unhealthy foods arelikely to offer excellent &lsquo;value for money&rsquo; as obesity prevention measures.<br /

The latency for correcting a movement depends on the visual attribute that defines the target

Neurons in different cortical visual areas respond to different visual attributes with different latencies. How does this affect the on-line control of our actions? We studied hand movements directed toward targets that could be distinguished from other objects by luminance, size, orientation, color, shape or texture. In some trials, the target changed places with one of the other objects at the onset of the hand’s movement. We determined the latency for correcting the movement of the hand in the direction of the new target location. We show that subjects can correct their movements at short latency for all attributes, but that responses for the attributes color, form and texture (that are relevant for recognizing the object) are 50 ms slower than for the attributes luminance, orientation and size. This dichotomy corresponds to both to the distinction between magno-cellular and parvo-cellular pathways and to a dorsal–ventral distinction. The latency also differed systematically between subjects, independent of their reaction time

Estimated health benefits, costs, and cost-effectiveness of eliminating industrial transfatty acids in Australia: A modelling study

Background: trans-fatty acids (TFAs) are a well-known risk factor of ischemic heart disease (IHD). In Australia, the highest TFA intake is concentrated to the most socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. Elimination of industrial TFA (iTFA) from the Australian food supply could result in reduced IHD mortality and morbidity while improving health equity. However, such legislation could lead to additional costs for both government and food industry. Thus, we assessed the potential cost-effectiveness, health gains, and effects on health equality of an iTFA ban from the Australian food supply. Methods and findings: Markov cohort models were used to estimate the impact on IHD burden and health equity, as well as the cost-effectiveness of a national ban of iTFA in Australia. Intake of TFA was assessed using the 2011&ndash;2012 Australian National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey. The IHD burden attributable to TFA was calculated by comparing the current level of TFA intake to a counterfactual setting where consumption was lowered to a theoretical minimum distribution with a mean of 0.5% energy per day (corresponding to TFA intake only from nonindustrial sources, e.g., dairy foods). Policy costs, avoided IHD events and deaths, health-adjusted life years (HALYs) gained, and changes in IHD-related healthcare costs saved were estimated over 10 years and lifetime of the adult Australian population. Cost-effectiveness was assessed by calculation of incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) using net policy cost and HALYs gained. Health benefits and healthcare cost changes were also assessed in subgroups based on socioeconomic status, defined by Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) quintile, and remoteness. Compared to a base case of no ban and current TFA intakes, elimination of iTFA was estimated to prevent 2,294 (95% uncertainty interval [UI]: 1,765; 2,851) IHD deaths and 9,931 (95% UI: 8,429; 11,532) IHD events over the first 10 years. The greatest health benefits were accrued to the most socioeconomically disadvantaged quintiles and among Australians living outside of major cities. The intervention was estimated to be cost saving (net cost &lt;0 AUD) or cost-effective (i.e., ICER &lt; AUD 169,361/HALY) regardless of the time horizon, with ICERs of 1,073 (95% UI: dominant; 3,503) and 1,956 (95% UI: 1,010; 2,750) AUD/HALY over 10 years and lifetime, respectively. Findings were robust across several sensitivity analyses. Key limitations of the study include the lack of recent data of TFA intake and the small sample sizes used to estimate intakes in subgroups. As with all simulation models, our study does not prove that a ban of iTFA will prevent IHD, rather, it provides the best quantitative estimates and corresponding uncertainty of a potential effect in the absence of stronger direct evidence. Conclusions: Our model estimates that a ban of iTFAs could avert substantial numbers of IHD events and deaths in Australia and would likely be a highly cost-effective strategy to reduce social&ndash;economic and urban&ndash;rural inequalities in health. These findings suggest that elimination of iTFA can cost-effectively improve health and health equality even in countries with low iTFA intake

The Effect of sheep serum and estrus sheep serum on in vitro maturation and fertility rate of ewe oocyte

The main objective of this research was to obtain the effect of sheep serum (SS) and estrus sheep serum (ESS) on in vitro maturation oocyte and ovine fertilization. This study was carried out in experimental laboratory in animal reproduction laboratory, Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Padjadjaran University. Results showed that treatments significantly (P0,05) influenced on maturation rate for germinal vesicle (GV), germinal vesicle breakdown (GVBD), metaphase-I (M-I) and metaphase-II (M-II), but no significantly (P0.05) results observed on ovine in vitro fertilization (1, 2 and 2 pronuclei). Concentration of 10-20% ESS in CR1aa media were significantly (P0,05) better than that of SS on maturation rate of ovine oocyte.       Key Words: Sheep Serum, Estrus Sheep Serum, Maturation, Fertilizatio

Health-related quality of life assessment in Indonesian childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Most studies on Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL) in children with cancer were conducted in developed countries. The aims of this study were to assess the HRQOL in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients in Indonesia and to assess the influence of demographic and medical characteristics on HRQOL.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>After cultural linguistic validation, a cross-sectional study of HRQOL was conducted with childhood ALL patients and their guardians in various phases of treatment using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL™) 4.0 Generic Core Scale and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL™) 3.0 Cancer Module.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Ninety-eight guardians and 55 patients participated. The internal consistency of both scales ranged from 0.57 to 0.92. HRQOL of Indonesian patients was comparable with those in developed countries. There were moderate to good correlations between self-reports and proxy-reports, however guardians tended to report worse HRQOL than patients. Children of the 2–5 year-group significantly had more problems in procedural anxiety, treatment anxiety and communication subscales than in older groups (p < 0.05). In the non-intensive phase HRQOL was significantly better than in the intensive phase, both in patient self-reports and proxy-reports.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Younger children had more problems in procedural anxiety, treatment anxiety and communication subscales. Therefore, special care during intervention procedures is needed to promote their normal development. Psychosocial support should be provided to children and their parents to facilitate their coping with disease and its treatment.</p