Early education pilot for two year old children : evaluation

This report provides the findings of the evaluation of the early education pilot for disadvantaged two year old children (the pilot). This study aimed to assess the impact of the pilot by looking at: how well the pilot was targeted, parents’ experiences of taking up a pilot place, the quality of the pilot settings, the impact on the children’s behaviour, and parents’ views and experiences of using a pilot place. The pilot provided free early years education to over 13,500 disadvantaged two year olds between 2006 and 2008. The main purpose of the pilot was to improve children’s social and cognitive outcomes, e.g. their social confidence and independence, and their verbal skills and reasoning ability. Additional aims were to have a positive impact on children’s parents and wider family e.g. on the relationship between parents and their children, or on parent’s emotional wellbeing. The funding offered these children 7.5 or in a small number of local authorities 12.5 hours of early years education per week for 38 weeks of the year. The pilot places were available in a variety of early years settings e.g. nurseries, play groups and with childminders, but all were required to operate the Birth to Three Matters curriculum.© National Centre for Social Research 2009. The full text of this report is not available in ORA. You may be able to access the report at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-education-pilot-for-2-year-old-children-evaluation (URL checked 26 March 2014) or via the publication website link above

Impacts of the Tropical Pacific/Indian Oceans on the Seasonal Cycle of the West African Monsoon

The current consensus is that drought has developed in the Sahel during the second half of the twentieth century as a result of remote effects of oceanic anomalies amplified by local land–atmosphere interactions. This paper focuses on the impacts of oceanic anomalies upon West African climate and specifically aims to identify those from SST anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Oceans during spring and summer seasons, when they were significant. Idealized sensitivity experiments are performed with four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs). The prescribed SST patterns used in the AGCMs are based on the leading mode of covariability between SST anomalies over the Pacific/Indian Oceans and summer rainfall over West Africa. The results show that such oceanic anomalies in the Pacific/Indian Ocean lead to a northward shift of an anomalous dry belt from the Gulf of Guinea to the Sahel as the season advances. In the Sahel, the magnitude of rainfall anomalies is comparable to that obtained by other authors using SST anomalies confined to the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean. The mechanism connecting the Pacific/Indian SST anomalies with West African rainfall has a strong seasonal cycle. In spring (May and June), anomalous subsidence develops over both the Maritime Continent and the equatorial Atlantic in response to the enhanced equatorial heating. Precipitation increases over continental West Africa in association with stronger zonal convergence of moisture. In addition, precipitation decreases over the Gulf of Guinea. During the monsoon peak (July and August), the SST anomalies move westward over the equatorial Pacific and the two regions where subsidence occurred earlier in the seasons merge over West Africa. The monsoon weakens and rainfall decreases over the Sahel, especially in August.Peer reviewe

Staff and parents are discriminators for outcomes in neonatal intensive care units

AimWe investigated the associations between staff work characteristics, parents' experiences and a number of medical outcome measures. MethodsThis explorative multicentre study took place in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) of five German university hospitals between 2009 and 2011. We assessed staff work characteristics by surveying 126 NICU nurses and 57 physicians and asked 214 parents about their relationships with staff. The outcome variables of 230 premature infants with birth weights of less than 1500g were collected over a period of 18months. We used analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analyses for statistical purposes. ResultsWe found differences in outcome measures between the NICUs, particularly parameters of respiratory support, weight gain and length of stay. When we controlled for the NICUs' baseline factors, perceptions of the relationship between staff and parents (empathy, p<0.001; conversation duration and frequency, p<0.05; familiarity, p<0.05) and staff work characteristics (workload, p<0.05) were associated with at least one of these outcome measures. ConclusionStaff and parents were discriminators for neonatal outcomes through perceptions of work characteristics and the relationship between staff and parents, respectively. Respiratory support and nutrition measures were particularly sensitive. This research has prompted a nationwide, multicentre study of 66 NICUs

Syndecan-1 Is Required to Maintain Intradermal Fat and Prevent Cold Stress

<div><p>Homeostatic temperature regulation is fundamental to mammalian physiology and is controlled by acute and chronic responses of local, endocrine and nervous regulators. Here, we report that loss of the heparan sulfate proteoglycan, syndecan-1, causes a profoundly depleted intradermal fat layer, which provides crucial thermogenic insulation for mammals. Mice without syndecan-1 enter torpor upon fasting and show multiple indicators of cold stress, including activation of the stress checkpoint p38α in brown adipose tissue, liver and lung. The metabolic phenotype in mutant mice, including reduced liver glycogen, is rescued by housing at thermoneutrality, suggesting that reduced insulation in cool temperatures underlies the observed phenotypes. We find that syndecan-1, which functions as a facultative lipoprotein uptake receptor, is required for adipocyte differentiation <i>in vitro</i>. Intradermal fat shows highly dynamic differentiation, continuously expanding and involuting in response to hair cycle and ambient temperature. This physiology probably confers a unique role for Sdc1 in this adipocyte sub-type. The PPARγ agonist rosiglitazone rescues <i>Sdc1−/−</i> intradermal adipose tissue, placing PPARγ downstream of Sdc1 in triggering adipocyte differentiation. Our study indicates that disruption of intradermal adipose tissue development results in cold stress and complex metabolic pathology.</p></div

Adipocyte differentiation can be rescued <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> by the PPARγ agonist, rosiglitazone.

<p><b>A</b>. 3T3-L1 cells, treated as indicated, were stained for Oil Red O to assess their differentiation. Rosiglitazone (2 µM) was added with the differentiation medium for 2 days. <b>B</b>. For similar cultures, VLDL uptake was measured. <b>C</b>. Rosiglitazone (0.015% diet for 5 days) was administered to <i>Sdc1−/−</i> and wild type mice, and reporters of pPARγ activity (mRNAs for Ucp1, Pgc1α and Elovl3) were measured by qPCR in mRNA extracts of white adipose tissue. <b>D</b>. Skins from rosiglitazone- and control-diet fed mice were paraffin embedded and sectioned to determine the thickness of intradermal fat (n = 8).</p

Loss of Sdc1 ablates adipocyte differentiation <i>in vitro</i>.

<p><b>A</b>. 3T3-L1 cells (pre-adipocytes), 3T3-L1 cells 8 days after initiation of the differentiation protocol (adipocytes) and 3T3-L1 cells after knockdown of Sdc1 with siRNA were assayed for Sdc1 expression by immunofluorescent antibody staining. <b>B</b>. A similar series of cultured cells were stained with Oil Red-O, a dye that dissolves in lipid drops accumulating in differentiated adipocytes. <b>C</b>. Cell lysates were assayed for markers of differentiation by qPCR (PPARγ, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma; FABP4, fatty acid binding protein-4; LPL, lipoprotein lipase; FASN, fatty acid synthase; CD36, thrombospondin receptor) and by Western blotting (FasN, Cd36, activated phospho-IRS1). <b>D</b>. Ear mesenchymal stem cells (eMSCs) were isolated from <i>Sdc1−/−</i> and BALB/c mice, transferred to culture, and induced to differentiate. Differentiation was visualized by Oil Red-O staining. Corresponding nuclear stains (<a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1004514#pgen.1004514.s006" target="_blank">Fig. S6C</a>) illustrate that the cell densities are approximately similar. <b>E</b>. To evaluate the impact of a heparan sulfate mimetic, heparin, on the ability of 3T3-L1 preadipocytes (A,B,C) and adipocytes (D,E,F) to take up VLDL, cells were incubated in presence (B,E) or absence (A,C,D,F) of 200 µM heparin with di-I labeled VLDL for 3 hours at 37°C. Fields from A and D were magnified (C and F respectively) to show the size and morphology of the red-stained vesicles. Uptake was quantified (right hand side panel). Lower concentrations of heparin showed similar effects (50 µM; data not shown).</p

Summary scheme of the effects of deficient intradermal fat in <i>Sdc1−/−</i> mice.

<p>The thickness of intradermal fat in non-anagen phases is set by ambient temperature, and is 80% depleted in <i>Sdc1−/−</i> mice housed at room temperatures. During anagen phase (when intradermal fat expands in response to local cues), the thickness of <i>Sdc1−/−</i> intradermal fat is high and normal; in warm temperatures, the intradermal fat of <i>Sdc1−/−</i> mice is thin and normal. Heat loss from skin containing 40 µM intradermal fat is calculated to be at least 2-fold higher than skin with 200 µM of intradermal fat. This heat loss leads to systemic p38α activation throughout intra-abdominal tissues, and a condition of “unalleviated cold stress” in <i>Sdc1−/−</i> mice.</p

<i>Sdc1−/−</i> mice have thinner intradermal fat.

<p><b>A</b>. Paraffin-embedded belly skin samples of <i>Sdc1−/−</i> and wild type BALB/c mice housed at 23°C were sectioned, H&E stained and the thickness of intradermal fat was quantified for non-anagen stage skin samples, measuring from muscle to dermis (n = 18 and 21 respectively). <b>B</b>. Body mass index was measured by DXA imaging for two groups of <i>Sdc1−/−</i> and wild type mice (as indicated). <b>C</b>. Paraffin-embedded belly skin samples of wild type BALB/c mice, housed at 31°C (5 days), 23°C (constant housing) and 4°C (5 days), were sectioned to illustrate the effect of housing temperature on intradermal fat deposits. Intradermal fat is indicated by brackets. (Back skin showed similar effects, but all skins compared for any one experiment come from the same location). <b>D</b>. Samples of anagen-stage belly skin for <i>Sdc1−/−</i> and wild type BALB/c mice housed at 23°C were stained with H&E. The hair follicle cycle is asynchronous in adults; anagen-stage is defined by the intrusion of hair follicles to the bottom of the intradermal fat layer, and a high epithelial mitotic index (<a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1004514#pgen.1004514.s003" target="_blank">Fig. S3</a>). Skin samples were scored as anagen or non-anagen for cohorts of <i>Sdc1−/−</i> and wild type BALB/c mice, and the proportion of each is illustrated (right hand side), to provide an estimate of relative frequency of anagen-stage skin. <b>E</b>. Morphometric analysis of adipocytes shows that size and number of adipocytes is normal in <i>Sdc1−/−</i> skin during anagen, but both are reduced in non-anagen stage <i>Sdc1−/−</i> skins (n = 6).</p