Diploma in Education? Rethinking the Curriculum.

For well over half a century the traditional end-on diploma year has been under fire from university departments, students, and the teaching profession. How is it possible in one year for students to reach adequate levels of knowledge and understanding in a large number of subjects, epistemologicalIy diverse and frequently outside their undergraduate experience? The answer of course, is that it is not possible to believe otherwise is to labour under gross delusion. A university department of education, acting with the best of intentions, cannot give more than cursory attention to even the most essential elements of a preservice programme within an abbreviated academic year

TA treatment of depression : a hermeneutic single-case efficacy design study - ‘Caterina’

This study is the second of a series of seven, and belongs to the second Italian systematic replication of findings from two previous series (Widdowson 2012a, 2012b, 2012c, 2013; Benelli, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c) that investigated the effectiveness of a manualised transactional analysis treatment for depression through Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design. The therapist was a white Italian woman with 10 years of clinical experience and the client, Caterina, was a 28-year old white Italian woman who attended 16 sessions of transactional analysis psychotherapy. Caterina satisfied DSM-5 criteria for major depressive disorder with generalized anxiety disorder. The conclusion of the judges was that this was an outstanding good-outcome case: the depressive symptoms showed an early clinical and reliable improvement, maintained till the 6 months follow-up, accompanied by reductions in anxiety symptoms, global distress and severity of personal problems. Adherence to the manualised treatment for depression appears good to excellent. In this case study, transactional analysis treatment for depression has proven its efficacy in treating major depressive disorder in comorbidity with anxiety disorder

Listening to the voices of women suffering perinatal psychological distress

This article suggests that transactional analysis can be an effective treatment approach for women suffering from mental health conditions and the emotional and life disturbances that may occur during the perinatal period. It offers a brief introduction to perinatal psychological distress followed by a description of the use of transactional analysis psychotherapy for this condition. The article outlines a new model for a research project that aims to ascertain women’s views on the helpfulness of the treatment and to gain a better understanding of the stigma often associated with perinatal mental health issues. The author argues for the necessity of qualitative research to assess the efficacy of transactional-analysis-based treatment and to increase our knowledge about the change process in transactional analysis psychotherapy with this client population as well as to inform future transactional analysis treatment protocols

Effi cacy of a Russian-backbone live attenuated infl uenza vaccine among children in Senegal: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Background Live attenuated infl uenza vaccines have been shown to signifi cantly reduce infl uenza in diverse populations of children, but no effi cacy studies have been done in resource-poor tropical settings. In Senegal, we assessed the effi cacy and safety of a live attenuated infl uenza vaccine based on Russian-derived master donor viruses and licensed as a single dose. Methods In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group, single-centre trial done near Niakhar, Senegal, generally healthy children aged 2–5 years were randomly allocated (2:1) to receive a single intranasal dose of masked trivalent live attenuated infl uenza vaccine or placebo. The allocation sequence was computer-generated by PATH with block sizes of three. The manufacturer provided vaccine and placebo in coded vials to preserve blinding. Participants were monitored through the predictable infl uenza season in Senegal for adverse events and signs and symptoms of infl uenza using weekly home visits and surveillance in clinics. The primary outcome was symptomatic laboratoryconfi rmed infl uenza caused by any strain and occurring from 15 days post-vaccination to the end of the study. The primary analysis was per protocol. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01854632. Findings Between May 23, and July 1, 2013, 1761 children were randomly assigned, 1174 to receive live attenuated infl uenza vaccine and 587 to receive placebo. The per-protocol set included 1173 vaccinees and 584 placebo recipients followed up to Dec 20, 2013. Symptomatic infl uenza was laboratory-confi rmed in 210 (18%) of 1173 recipients of live attenuated infl uenza vaccine and 105 (18%) of placebo recipients, giving a vaccine effi cacy of 0·0% (95% CI –26·4 to 20·9). Adverse events were balanced between the study groups. Two girls who had received live attenuated infl uenza vaccine died, one due to anasarca 12 days postvaccination and one due to malnutrition 70 days postvaccination. Interpretation Live attenuated infl uenza vaccine was well tolerated in young children in Senegal, but did not provide protection against infl uenza. Further study in such populations, which might experience extended periods of infl uenza circulation, is warranted

'Why Should I Study English If I'm Never Going To Leave This Town?' Developing Alternative Orientations To Culture in the EFL Classroom Through CAR

This article describes the progress and findings of a collaborative action research project on the cultural dimension in primary levels of EFL education in Valencia (Spain). Its aim was to explore whether the EFL subject tended to ignore the students¿ native cultural background, and if so, whether this omission brought negative pedagogical consequences. It involved ten student-teachers who were carrying out their practicum placements at schools in the region, ten EFL school teachers, and a university researcher. Collective meetings were held to critically analyze the school experiences, and design experimental interventions to give a different orientation to culture in the EFL class. By the end of the CAR, the STs had become better teachers and researchers: they were more aware of the need for the learners¿ cultural background to become integrated into the communicative aims of the EFL subject, and more prepared to improve their theoretical and practical understanding of this dimension through research on their own teaching

Concurrent Outbreak of Norovirus Genotype I and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli on a U.S. Navy Ship following a Visit to Lima, Peru

An outbreak of norovirus (NoV) genotype I and Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) occurred among US Navy Ship personnel following a visit to Lima, Peru, in June 2008. Visiting a specific area in Lima was significantly associated with illness. While ETEC and NoV are commonly recognized as causative agents of outbreaks, co-circulation of both pathogens has been rarely observed in shipboard outbreaks

Estimation of the national disease burden of influenza-associated severe acute respiratory illness in Kenya and Guatemala : a novel methodology

Background: Knowing the national disease burden of severe influenza in low-income countries can inform policy decisions around influenza treatment and prevention. We present a novel methodology using locally generated data for estimating this burden. Methods and Findings: This method begins with calculating the hospitalized severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) incidence for children <5 years old and persons ≥5 years old from population-based surveillance in one province. This base rate of SARI is then adjusted for each province based on the prevalence of risk factors and healthcare-seeking behavior. The percentage of SARI with influenza virus detected is determined from provincial-level sentinel surveillance and applied to the adjusted provincial rates of hospitalized SARI. Healthcare-seeking data from healthcare utilization surveys is used to estimate non-hospitalized influenza-associated SARI. Rates of hospitalized and non-hospitalized influenza-associated SARI are applied to census data to calculate the national number of cases. The method was field-tested in Kenya, and validated in Guatemala, using data from August 2009–July 2011. In Kenya (2009 population 38.6 million persons), the annual number of hospitalized influenza-associated SARI cases ranged from 17,129–27,659 for children <5 years old (2.9–4.7 per 1,000 persons) and 6,882–7,836 for persons ≥5 years old (0.21–0.24 per 1,000 persons), depending on year and base rate used. In Guatemala (2011 population 14.7 million persons), the annual number of hospitalized cases of influenza-associated pneumonia ranged from 1,065–2,259 (0.5–1.0 per 1,000 persons) among children <5 years old and 779–2,252 cases (0.1–0.2 per 1,000 persons) for persons ≥5 years old, depending on year and base rate used. In both countries, the number of non-hospitalized influenza-associated cases was several-fold higher than the hospitalized cases. Conclusions: Influenza virus was associated with a substantial amount of severe disease in Kenya and Guatemala. This method can be performed in most low and lower-middle income countries

Comparative study of deuterium retention and vacancy content of self-ion irradiated tungsten

Self-ion irradiation of pure tungsten with 2 MeV W ions provides a way of simulating microstructures generated by neutron irradiation in tungsten components of a fusion reactor. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been used to characterize defects formed in tungsten samples by ion irradiation. It was found that tungsten irradiated to 0.85 dpa at relatively low temperatures develops a characteristic microstructure dominated by dislocation loops and black dots. The density and size distribution of these defects were estimated. Some of the samples exposed to self-ion irradiation were then implanted with deuterium. Thermal Desorption Spectrometry (TDS) analysis was performed to estimate the deuterium inventory as a function of irradiation damage and deuterium release as a function of temperature. Increase of inventory with increasing irradiation dose followed by slight decrease above 0.1 dpa was found. Application of Positron Annihilation Spectroscopy (PAS) to self-irradiated but not deuterium implanted samples enabled an assessment of the density of irradiation defects as a function of exposure to highenergy ions. The PAS results show that the density of defects saturates at doses in the interval from 0.085 to 0.425 displacements per atom (dpa). These results are discussed in the context of recent theoretical simulations exhibiting the saturation of defect microstructure in the high irradiation exposure limit. The saturation of damage found in PAS agrees with the simulation data described in the paper. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )Peer reviewe

Paradoxical alliances in transactional analysis psychotherapy for anxiety : a systematic adjudicated case study

This article considers the use of the technique of paradoxical alliances in transactional analysis psychotherapy with a 37-year-old white French woman over two sets of sessions. The authors hypothesize that this technique, which has not yet been widely used in TA, can be effective in the treatment of anxiety disorders and offers a useful addition to existing transactional analysis methods. The first set of sessions with the client occurred before the paradoxical alliances approach had been developed, and although therapy had some benefits, it did not result in lasting change for the client. In the second set of sessions, the paradoxical alliances technique was applied and resulted in a deep, lasting improvement in the client’s anxiety attack

Approaches to the evaluation of outbreak detection methods

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of methods are being developed for the early detection of infectious disease outbreaks which could be naturally occurring or as a result of bioterrorism; however, no standardised framework for examining the usefulness of various outbreak detection methods exists. To promote comparability between studies, it is essential that standardised methods are developed for the evaluation of outbreak detection methods. METHODS: This analysis aims to review approaches used to evaluate outbreak detection methods and provide a conceptual framework upon which recommendations for standardised evaluation methods can be based. We reviewed the recently published literature for reports which evaluated methods for the detection of infectious disease outbreaks in public health surveillance data. Evaluation methods identified in the recent literature were categorised according to the presence of common features to provide a conceptual basis within which to understand current approaches to evaluation. RESULTS: There was considerable variation in the approaches used for the evaluation of methods for the detection of outbreaks in public health surveillance data, and appeared to be no single approach of choice. Four main approaches were used to evaluate performance, and these were labelled the Descriptive, Derived, Epidemiological and Simulation approaches. Based on the approaches identified, we propose a basic framework for evaluation and recommend the use of multiple approaches to evaluation to enable a comprehensive and contextualised description of outbreak detection performance. CONCLUSION: The varied nature of performance evaluation demonstrated in this review supports the need for further development of evaluation methods to improve comparability between studies. Our findings indicate that no single approach can fulfil all evaluation requirements. We propose that the cornerstone approaches to evaluation identified provide key contributions to support internal and external validity and comparability of study findings, and suggest these be incorporated into future recommendations for performance assessment