UNEXPECTED PATH TO FREE RANGE LEARNING

This is a condensed version of an interview with Laura Grace Weldon, author of Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything, by Rebecca Bohnman on The Luminous Mind podcast. Weldon discusses her family’s shift from schooling to homeschooling tounschooling. She also describes using research to shake off a conventional school mindset, the benefits of diversity in homeschooling/unschooling groups, recognizing knowledge networks, and more

A comparison of European eel Anguilla anguilla eDNA concentrations to fyke net catches in five Irish lakes

The European eel, Anguilla anguilla, is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN. To protect what remains of the European eel population, accurate monitoring methods for this species are important. Environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques are gaining popularity for ecological monitoring of aquatic organisms because they are sensitive and non-invasive. This study directly compared catch data from a standardised fyke-net fishing survey with a single species A. anguilla eDNA survey in five freshwater lakes in Ireland. The eDNA was recovered by the filtration of water samples and amplified by quantitative real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR). European eel eDNA was reliably determined in 83 % (70/84) of surface water samples collected from lakes classified as having high, medium and low eel populations. In addition there was a positive association between the eDNA concentrations recovered and the eel population classification with lower eDNA concentrations in lakes classified as low eel population lakes. Similar amounts of A. anguilla eDNA were detected in water samples collected from open water and shore-side, suggesting shore sampling is an adequate method for eel detection. Together, the results demonstrate that eDNA sampling is more sensitive for detecting eel presence in low eel population environments than standard survey methods, and may be a useful non-invasive tool for monitoring A. anguilla species distribution

Occupational Therapy Strategies for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome

Effectiveness of occupational therapy strategies with adults with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

An evidence-based study mapping the decline in freshwater ponds in the Severn Vale catchment in the UK between 1900 and 2019

Freshwater ponds have long been an overlooked biodiversity store and changing types of land use and the land management practices has led to a steady decline in pond numbers. Establishing the regional extent of pond loss is the first step in identifying key areas for conservation action. This study calculated pond loss in the Severn Vale catchment UK since 1900. Identification of pond location and surrounding land use on historic and contemporary maps enabled a comparison of total number, density and distance between present day and historic ponds. 57.7% of ponds present in 1900 were lost and pond density declined from 7.3 to 4.5 ponds km−2 between 1900 and 2019. This resulted in a 24.6 m increase in the average distance between contemporary ponds. Land use was an important factor in determining pond loss. Although in 2019 the highest density of ponds are in rural areas, 62.3% of ponds lost were from agricultural settings (arable or pasture). Our results highlight the significant pond loss experienced in the Severn Vale since 1900 and provide a valuable baseline for pondscape restoration. The methods described are widely applicable to other regions either with a history of ponds or an environment that could sustain them

Ensuring Learner Safety and Wellbeing When Teaching Sensitive Topics

The mental health and wellbeing of students is of upmost importance and it is becoming increasingly recognised that students at universities in the UK are experiencing more mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. Some estimate that up to 1 in 4 students may experience a mental health problem. Some universities have observed an increase in students dropping out and a number of student suicides have occurred. With the pivot to remote teaching and learning that has occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the mental health and wellbeing of students, is crucial. We have experience of teaching a number of potentially distressing and/or triggering topics remotely on platforms such as Zoom, MS Teams, Moodle and FutureLearn. Such sensitive topics include child abuse and neglect, torture, gender-based violence, suicide and chaining. In recognition of the sensitive content that has been delivered online, we have developed a number of strategies to promote the well-being of our students and ensure as much as possible that the learning environment remains safe. In this presentation we explore some of our experiences of developing self-care resources for students. We discuss our experiences of moderating student comments when delivering online learning about suicide prevention and post-traumatic stress disorder and we present some student feedback about embedding self-care resources in the learning material

Developing and Refining Course Content While Remote Working

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a range of changes on working practices and intra-team collaboration within higher education which have had an effect on the planning, development, and delivery of teaching materials. The requirement across the University to adapt content to better fit a blended-teaching approach provides an excellent opportunity to update and improve learning materials. Since the start of the pandemic, the Global Mental Health (GMH) team have collaboratively produced a range of new learning materials, including a 4-week Massive Open Online Course on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and a 10-week SFC Funded Micro-Credential on the Impact of Trauma on Mental Health, in addition to adapting the existing Programme content to meet student needs. This presentation will highlight some examples of innovative practice which will be useful in guiding other educators to design and refine their learning materials. Remote working has made co-ordination of course development challenging. To overcome this, the GMH team relied on a range of technological tools, including MS Teams, OneNote, and Excel. Previous experience of effective working with the MVLS and Wiley Digital Learning Teams led to a OneNote template for course development being established. Steps within the template were developed, and once a draft created, the content within the step could be iteratively refined by different team members. All the learning materials under development were fully visible and editable to everyone simultaneously. In addition, a regularly updated open access spreadsheet allowed for progress to be clearly and effectively tracked across multiple courses, which helped motivate and encourage team members as they could physically observe the progress being made through the collaborative process. MS Teams further facilitated the sharing of information and requests for help or guidance. The process outlined above has proven equally useful in refining existing course content

The ecology of immune state in a wild mammal, Mus musculus domesticus

The immune state of wild animals is largely unknown. Knowing this and what affects it is important in understanding how infection and disease affects wild animals. The immune state of wild animals is also important in understanding the biology of their pathogens, which is directly relevant to explaining pathogen spillover among species, including to humans. The paucity of knowledge about wild animals' immune state is in stark contrast to our exquisitely detailed understanding of the immunobiology of laboratory animals. Making an immune response is costly, and many factors (such as age, sex, infection status, and body condition) have individually been shown to constrain or promote immune responses. But, whether or not these factors affect immune responses and immune state in wild animals, their relative importance, and how they interact (or do not) are unknown. Here, we have investigated the immune ecology of wild house mice—the same species as the laboratory mouse—as an example of a wild mammal, characterising their adaptive humoral, adaptive cellular, and innate immune state. Firstly, we show how immune variation is structured among mouse populations, finding that there can be extensive immune discordance among neighbouring populations. Secondly, we identify the principal factors that underlie the immunological differences among mice, showing that body condition promotes and age constrains individuals’ immune state, while factors such as microparasite infection and season are comparatively unimportant. By applying a multifactorial analysis to an immune system-wide analysis, our results bring a new and unified understanding of the immunobiology of a wild mammal

Serum Persistent Organic Pollutants and Duration of Lactation among Mexican-American Women

Background. Research suggests that estrogenic endocrine-disrupting chemicals interfere with lactation. Objectives. (1) to determine if estrogenic persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are associated with shortened lactation duration; (2) to determine whether previous breastfeeding history biases associations. Methods and Results. We measured selected organochlorines and polychlorinated biphenyls (p, p′-DDE, p, p′-DDT, o, p′-DDT, β-hexachlorocyclohexane, hexachlorobenzene, and PCBs 44, 49, 52, 118, 138, 153, and 180) in serum from 366 low-income, Mexican-American pregnant women living in an agricultural region of California and assessed breastfeeding duration by questionnaires. We found no association between DDE, DDT, or estrogenic POPs with shortened lactation duration, but rather associations for two potentially estrogenic POPs with lengthened lactation duration arose (HR [95% CI]: 0.6 [0.4, 0.8] for p, p′-DDE & 0.8 [0.6, 1.0] for PCB 52). Associations between antiestrogenic POPs (PCBs 138 and 180) and shortened lactation duration were attributed to a lactation history bias. Conclusion. Estrogenic POPs were not associated with shortened lactation duration, but may be associated with longer lactation duration