An open and transparent process to select ELIXIR Node Services as implemented by ELIXIR-UK

ELIXIR is the European infrastructure established specifically for the sharing and sustainability of life science data. To provide up-to-date resources and services, ELIXIR needs to undergo a continuous process of refreshing the services provided by its national Nodes. Here we present the approach taken by ELIXIR-UK to address the advice by the ELIXIR Scientific Advisory Board that Nodes need to develop “mechanisms to ensure that each Node continues to be representative of the Bioinformatics efforts within the country”. ELIXIR-UK put in place an open and transparent process to identify potential ELIXIR resources within the UK during late 2015 and early to mid-2016. Areas of strategic strength were identified and Expressions of Interest in these priority areas were requested from the UK community. A set of criteria were established, in discussion with the ELIXIR Hub, and prospective ELIXIR-UK resources were assessed by an independent committee set up by the Node for this purpose. Of 19 resources considered, 14 were judged to be immediately ready to be included in the UK ELIXIR Node’s portfolio. A further five were placed on the Node’s roadmap for future consideration for inclusion. ELIXIR-UK expects to repeat this process regularly to ensure its portfolio continues to reflect its community’s strengths

The Melbourne epidemic thunderstorm asthma event 2016: an investigation of environmental triggers, effect on health services, and patient risk factors.

BACKGROUND: A multidisciplinary collaboration investigated the world's largest, most catastrophic epidemic thunderstorm asthma event that took place in Melbourne, Australia, on Nov 21, 2016, to inform mechanisms and preventive strategies. METHODS: Meteorological and airborne pollen data, satellite-derived vegetation index, ambulance callouts, emergency department presentations, and data on hospital admissions for Nov 21, 2016, as well as leading up to and following the event were collected between Nov 21, 2016, and March 31, 2017, and analysed. We contacted patients who presented during the epidemic thunderstorm asthma event at eight metropolitan health services (each including up to three hospitals) via telephone questionnaire to determine patient characteristics, and investigated outcomes of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. FINDINGS: Grass pollen concentrations on Nov 21, 2016, were extremely high (>100 grains/m3). At 1800 AEDT, a gust front crossed Melbourne, plunging temperatures 10°C, raising humidity above 70%, and concentrating particulate matter. Within 30 h, there were 3365 (672%) excess respiratory-related presentations to emergency departments, and 476 (992%) excess asthma-related admissions to hospital, especially individuals of Indian or Sri Lankan birth (10% vs 1%, p<0·0001) and south-east Asian birth (8% vs 1%, p<0·0001) compared with previous 3 years. Questionnaire data from 1435 (64%) of 2248 emergency department presentations showed a mean age of 32·0 years (SD 18·6), 56% of whom were male. Only 28% had current doctor-diagnosed asthma. 39% of the presentations were of Asian or Indian ethnicity (25% of the Melbourne population were of this ethnicity according to the 2016 census, relative risk [RR] 1·93, 95% CI 1·74-2·15, p <0·0001). Of ten individuals who died, six were Asian or Indian (RR 4·54, 95% CI 1·28-16·09; p=0·01). 35 individuals were admitted to an intensive care unit, all had asthma, 12 took inhaled preventers, and five died. INTERPRETATION: Convergent environmental factors triggered a thunderstorm asthma epidemic of unprecedented magnitude, tempo, and geographical range and severity on Nov 21, 2016, creating a new benchmark for emergency and health service escalation. Asian or Indian ethnicity and current doctor-diagnosed asthma portended life-threatening exacerbations such as those requiring admission to an ICU. Overall, the findings provide important public health lessons applicable to future event forecasting, health care response coordination, protection of at-risk populations, and medical management of epidemic thunderstorm asthma. FUNDING: None

Mortality After Pediatric Arterial Ischemic Stroke

OBJECTIVES: Cerebrovascular disease is among the top 10 causes of death in US children, but risk factors for mortality are poorly understood. Within an international registry, we identify predictors of in-hospital mortality after pediatric arterial ischemic stroke (AIS). METHODS: Neonates (0-28 days) and children (29 days- < 19 years) with AIS were enrolled from January 2003 to July 2014 in a multinational stroke registry. Death during hospitalization and cause of death were ascertained from medical records. Logistic regression was used to analyze associations between risk factors and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: Fourteen of 915 neonates (1.5%) and 70 of 2273 children (3.1%) died during hospitalization. Of 48 cases with reported causes of death, 31 (64.6%) were strokerelated, with remaining deaths attributed to medical disease. In multivariable analysis, congenital heart disease (odds ratio [OR]: 3.88; 95% confidence interval [CI] : 1.23-12.29; P = .021), posterior plus anterior circulation stroke (OR: 5.36; 95% CI: 1.70-16.85; P = .004), and stroke presentation without seizures (OR: 3.95; 95% CI: 1.26-12.37; P = .019) were associated with in-hospital mortality for neonates. Hispanic ethnicity (OR: 3.12; 95% CI: 1.56-6.24; P = .001), congenital heart disease (OR: 3.14; 95% CI: 1.75-5.61; P < .001), and posterior plus anterior circulation stroke (OR: 2.71; 95% CI: 1.40-5.25; P = .003) were associated with in-hospital mortality for children. CONCLUSIONS: In-hospital mortality occurred in 2.6% of pediatric AIS cases. Most deaths were attributable to stroke. Risk factors for in-hospital mortality included congenital heart disease and posterior plus anterior circulation stroke. Presentation without seizures and Hispanic ethnicity were also associated with mortality for neonates and children, respectively. Awareness and study of risk factors for mortality represent opportunities to increase survival

Language delay in early childhood: A gender perspective

Language and literacy, development and acquisition, has fascinated linguists, psychologists and sociologists for decades. The debate on whether thought precedes language, or language precedes thought, continues with the same fervour as the nature/nurture discussions for the development of human intelligence. Parents, teachers and care -givers need appropriate information to provide quality support for language and literacy development in early childhood. State and Commonwealth monies and projects are heavily focussed on improving student literacy outcomes. The issues of language development and the serious short and long term consequences of language delay on the progression of literacy skills, attitudinal development and interpersonal relationships have provided the impetus for this study into the complexity of language delay in early childhood from a gender perspective. This incorporated the consequential impact for teaching and learning. Most government and non -government providers of educational services have policies to address gender issues. Accommodating that differences between and within genders are real and unique to the individual child, added to the complexity the topic. This project researched language and literacy development in a study involving five Central Queensland State Schools. Students' attitudes to school (N=973), teachers' perceptions of students' attitudes (N=56), and staff opinions on the human relationships in each respective school were surveyed (N=60). Statistics were collected from ten learning support teachers in the Rockhampton area supporting 726 students who were referred as having some degree of learning difficulty. Screening and retesting of 39 early childhood students across the five schools, using the Bankson Language Test -2, was implemented to ascertain improvements in language acquisition. Teaching staff in the five schools, from Pre School to Year 3, were surveyed as to their opinions on language delay and language learning environments (N=23). As evidenced throughout this project, language delay can be attributed to a number of genetic and environmental influences. This study strongly advocates for increased support to assist teachers and parents in understanding and meeting the needs of language delayed children and in creating an awareness of the gender implications for emergent language learners. Intervention programs can be effectively implemented.</p

Teaching as a &#039;take-home&#039; job: understanding resilience strategies and resources for career change preservice teachers

This paper explores the strategies and resources for resilience activated by a cohort of career change preservice teachers enrolled in a graduate entry teacher education program in eastern Australia. Data were collected through focus groups as the preservice teachers prepared for professional experience placements. A social ecological lens is used as a framework to discuss the range of personal and contextual resources and strategies utilised to activate their individual resilience. The findings revealed that preservice teachers perceived teaching as a &#039;take home&#039; job with the intense workload demands and stresses of teaching impacting on their personal as well as their professional lives that precipitated a range of resilient responses. Supervising teachers and professional experience contexts appeared to impact significantly on preservice teacher resilience and their successful adaptation to teaching

Looking for leadership: the potential of dialogic reflexivity with rural early-career teachers

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Many early-career teachers (ECTs) begin their teaching careers in rural and remote schools in Australia, and do not stay long, with consequences for their own lives, and for their students, schools and communities. By understanding how first-year ECTs navigate personal (subjective) and contextual (objective) conditions, opportunities to disrupt patterns of ECT attrition may be found. This paper explores the online longitudinal reflections from two rural ECTs. Margaret Archer’s three dimensions of reflexivity were used to analyse what personal, structural and cultural resources were activated by ECTs as they discerned and deliberated the costs of being a rural ECT. The potential for school leaders and mentors to support rural ECTs through dialogic reflexivity, that is the opportunity to discern and deliberate priorities with others, is identified as a role that is significant for ECT support but not straightforward. Prompts for dialogic reflexivity are proposed