Exploring the front end of New Zealand curriculum in student teacher education: an example from language and mathematics education.

This paper reports on two components of a collaborative project conducted by members of the language and literacy education, mathematics education and social studies teaching teams at the Faculty of Education, The University of Waikato. The teams decided to research the implications of the front end of The New Zealand Curriculum document [NZC] (Ministry of Education, 2007). The front end of the document includes key competencies and a statement describing each learning area. The language and literacy team chose to explore student teacher understandings of the English essence statement and the way in which that learning area is structured. The mathematics education team explored student teacher understandings of and implications for the "thinking" key competency for the teaching and learning of mathematics. Data were collected through in-class observations and tasks, and the analysis of aspects of student assessment work. The findings highlighted the value of an explicit focus on a particular facet of the NZC along with the challenges student teachers experience in envisaging how this might play out in practice

Options for a new integrated natural resources monitoring framework for Wales. Phase 1 project report

Healthy natural resources underpin significant economic sectors in Wales including agriculture, fisheries, tourism and forestry, they also make a significant contribution across Cabinet policies including the health and well-being agenda. In order to develop policies that build social, economic and environmental resilience and to evaluate policy implementation, a robust natural resources monitoring framework is required. Current monitoring activities are of varying quality, not sufficiently aligned to the new legislative and policy landscape, disjointed and when considered as a whole, potentially not as cost-effective as they could be. This project was tasked with identifying options and developing recommendations for an integrated natural resources monitoring framework for Wales reflecting the ambitions and integrating principles of the Environment Act and Well Being of Future Generations Act. The monitoring community, the Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales Core Evidence Group, the project team, stakeholders and partners, have agreed on a set of recommendations

Enabling student employability through volunteering: insights from police volunteers studying professional policing degrees in Wales

Purpose (limit 100 words) This paper explores perceptions, and provides insights, from students who volunteer in policing whilst also studying the College of Policing licensed professional policing degree (PPD) in Wales. It examines issues that act as enablers and blockers to volunteering in this public service, which also provides opportunities to develop their employability towards the careers to which they aspire. The paper provides insights from students and makes recommendations of interest to multiple stakeholders locally, regionally, nationally and internationally regarding attracting and recruiting volunteers. Design/methodology/approach (limit 100 words) Focus groups were conducted with students at three separate universities in the South and West of Wales. These undergraduate students were volunteers in different police forces and agreed to take part in connection with their experiences. The results were analysed using NVivo to establish commonalities. Findings (limit 100 words) The paper provides empirical insights concerning the issues surrounding the way those undergoing the process for recruitment as volunteers within policing are either hindered (blocked) or assisted (enabled). It identifies specific problematic areas as well as areas which have been of assistance. Policy makers, educators and recruiters should be aware of such blockers and enablers when considering adopting volunteering as an opportunity to enhance student employability. It also has resonance for other forms of volunteering in alternate public services. Research limitations/implications (limit 100 words) This research is limited to those volunteers who are undertaking the licensed PPD at three separate universities in Wales. Although the research adds to the broader evidence-base with regards to volunteering and its use to enhance employability. Practical implications (limit 100 words) The paper includes practical implications for multiple stakeholders including university programme educators, administrators and decision makers in policing with regards to volunteering, employability, programme structures and process management. Originality/value (limit 100 words) The research is based upon the experiences and perceptions of those individuals who are actually engaged in volunteering

Phonetic variation and change in the Cockney Diaspora: The role of place, gender, and identity

Recent research has suggested that two linguistic processes are displacing Cockney: the emergence of Multicultural London English (MLE) in inner London and dialect levelling (e.g. Kerswill & Williams 2005). This study investigates firstly whether Cockney phonetic features have ‘moved East’ to Essex (Fox 2015), and secondly the features’ indexicality in relation to place and identity. Fifty-four participants from Debden, an outpost of the Cockney Diaspora, completed a sociolinguistic interview. Vowel measurements were made from a wordlist and passage, and quantitative attitudinal and qualitative data were extracted from a questionnaire and interviews. Overall, changes in identity as a result of social change exceeded linguistic changes, and linguistic labels were not interpreted uniformly across the community. Whilst Cockney variants were largely maintained in young speakers, they were transposed onto an ‘Essex’ accent. Furthermore, some young women but no young men considered themselves Cockney, likely due to the matrifocal nature of Cockney. (Cockney, phonetic variation and change, dialect levelling, identity, indexicality, gende

The conceptual and practical ethical dilemmas of using health discussion board posts as research data.

Increasing numbers of people living with a long-term health condition are putting personal health information online, including on discussion boards. Many discussion boards contain material of potential use to researchers; however, it is unclear how this information can and should be used by researchers. To date there has been no evaluation of the views of those individuals sharing health information online regarding the use of their shared information for research purposes

AMPA/kainate glutamate receptors contribute to inflammation, degeneration and pain related behaviour in inflammatory stages of arthritis

Objectives Synovial fluid glutamate concentrations increase in arthritis. Activation of kainate (KA) and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) glutamate receptors (GluRs) increase interleukin-6 (IL-6) release and cause arthritic pain, respectively. We hypothesised that AMPA and KA GluRs are expressed in human arthritis, and that intra-articular NBQX (AMPA/KA GluR antagonist) prevents pain and pathology in antigen-induced arthritis (AIA). Methods GluR immunohistochemistry was related to synovial inflammation and degradation in osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). A single intra-articular NBQX injection was given at induction, and knee swelling and gait of AIA and AIA+NBQX rats compared over 21 days, before imaging, RT-qPCR, histology and immunohistochemistry of joints. Effects of NBQX on human primary osteoblast (HOB) activity were determined. Results AMPAR2 and KA1 immunolocalised to remodelling bone, cartilage and synovial cells in human OA and RA, and rat AIA. All arthritic tissues showed degradation and synovial inflammation. NBQX reduced GluR abundance, knee swelling (p<0.001, days 1–21), gait abnormalities (days 1–2), end-stage joint destruction (p<0.001), synovial inflammation (p<0.001), and messenger RNA expression of meniscal IL-6 (p<0.05) and whole joint cathepsin K (p<0.01). X-ray and MRI revealed fewer cartilage and bone erosions, and less inflammation after NBQX treatment. NBQX reduced HOB number and prevented mineralisation. Conclusions AMPA/KA GluRs are expressed in human OA and RA, and in AIA, where a single intra-articular injection of NBQX reduced swelling by 33%, and inflammation and degeneration scores by 34% and 27%, respectively, exceeding the efficacy of approved drugs in the same model. AMPA/KA GluR antagonists represent a potential treatment for arthritis

Association between rheumatoid arthritis disease activity, progression of functional limitation and long-term risk of orthopaedic surgery : Combined analysis of two prospective cohorts supports EULAR treat to target DAS thresholds

Objectives: To examine the association between disease activity in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), functional limitation and long-term orthopaedic episodes. Methods: Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) disability scores were collected from two longitudinal early RA inception cohorts in routine care; Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Study and Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network from 1986 to 2012. The incidence of major and intermediate orthopaedic surgical episodes over 25 years was collected from national data sets. Disease activity was categorised by mean disease activity score (DAS28) annually between years 1 and 5; remission (RDAS≤2.6), low (LDAS>2.6-3.2), low-moderate (LMDAS≥3.2-4.19), high-moderate (HMDAS 4.2-5.1) and high (HDAS>5.1). Results: Data from 2045 patients were analysed. Patients in RDAS showed no HAQ progression over 5 years, whereas there was a significant relationship between rising DAS28 category and HAQ at 1 year, and the rate of HAQ progression between years 1 and 5. During 27 986 person-years follow-up, 392 intermediate and 591 major surgeries were observed. Compared with the RDAS category, there was a significantly increased cumulative incidence of intermediate surgery in HDAS (OR 2.59 CI 1.49 to 4.52) and HMDAS (OR 1.8 CI 1.05 to 3.11) categories, and for major surgery in HDAS (OR 2.48 CI 1.5 to 4.11), HMDAS (OR 2.16 CI 1.32 to 3.52) and LMDAS (OR 2.07 CI 1.28 to 3.33) categories. There was no significant difference in HAQ progression or orthopaedic episodes between RDAS and LDAS categories. Conclusions: There is an association between disease activity and both poor function and long-term orthopaedic episodes. This illustrates the far from benign consequences of persistent moderate disease activity, and supports European League Against Rheumatism treat to target recommendations to secure low disease activity or remission in all patients.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Woodland, cropland and hedgerows promote pollinator abundance in intensive grassland landscapes, with saturating benefits of flower cover

1. Pollinating insects provide economic value by improving crop yield. They are also functionally and culturally important across ecosystems outside of cropland. To understand landscape-level drivers of pollinator declines, and guide policy and intervention to reverse declines, studies must cover (a) multiple insect and plant taxa and (b) a range of agricultural and semi-natural land uses. Furthermore, in an era of woodland restoration initiatives and rewilding ideologies, the contribution of woodland and woody linear features (WLFs; e.g. hedgerows) to pollinator abundance demands further investigation. 2. We demonstrate fine-scale analysis of high-quality, co-located measurements from a national environmental survey. We relate pollinator transect counts to ground-truth habitat and WLF maps across 300 1 km squares in Wales, UK. We look at effects of habitat type, flower cover, WLF density and habitat diversity on summer abundance (July and August) of eight insect groups, representing three insect orders (Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Diptera). 3. Compared with improved grassland (the dominant habitat in Wales), pollinator abundance is consistently higher in cropland and woodland—especially broadleaved woodland. For mining bees and two hoverfly groups, abundance is predicted to be at least 1.5× higher in woodland ecosystems than elsewhere. Furthermore, we estimate contributions of WLFs to abundance in agriculturally improved habitats to be up to 14% for honeybees and up to 21% for hoverflies. 4. The abundance of all insect groups increases with flower cover, which is a key mechanism through which woodland, cropland and grassland support pollinators. Importantly, we observe diminishing returns of increasing flower cover for abundance of non-Apis pollinator groups, expecting roughly twice the increase in abundance per % flower cover from 0% to 5%, as compared with 10% to 15%. However, the shape of the relationship was inverted for honeybees, which showed steeper increases in abundance at higher flower cover. 4. Synthesis and applications: We provide a holistic view of the drivers of pollinator abundance in Wales, in which flower cover, woodland, hedgerows and cropland are critical. We propose a key role for woodland creation, hedge-laying and farmland heterogeneity within future land management incentive schemes. Finally, we suggest targeting of interventions to maximise benefits for non-Apis pollinators. Specifically, increasing floral provision in areas where existing flower cover is low—for example, in flower-poor improved grasslands—could effectively increase pollinator abundance and diversity while prioritising wild over managed species