Effects of Music Therapy and Piano Lesson on Academic Achievement, Classroom Behaviors, and Self-Esteem of At- Risk Students: A Pilot Study

There is a need for research that explores the effects of music lesson on intellectual, behavioral, and emotional functioning of at-risk students who attend regular public school. Some students might benefit more from a direct approach utilizing therapeutic goals and interventions in music therapy while others may be more profoundly impacted by an indirect approach such as piano instruction. It is worthwhile to compare the effects of music lessons and music therapy incorporating music instruction on non-musical behaviors of at-risk students. The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of piano instruction and music therapy incorporating piano instruction on academic achievement, classroom behaviors, and self-esteem in at-risk students. Participants were 32 at-risk elementary school students (2nd, 3 rd, and 4th graders). They were randomly assigned to one of 10 weeks of 30 minute, one-to-one training conditions: music therapy incorporated piano instruction (n=11), piano instruction (n=11), and no-training (n=10). Participants’ language and math scores, Teacher’s Ratings of Classroom Behaviors (TRCB), and Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory were measured. There was no statistically significant difference between the training conditions. The present study investigated the effect of two different forms of music instruction; music therapy and piano instruction for at-risk students. With the breadth of variables to be considered and the conclusions drawn by some studies that music may indeed have a significant impact on this particular population, further research is warranted

Consumers’ Perceptions of Nurses Using Recovery-focused Care to Reduce Aggression in All Acute Mental Health Including Forensic Mental Health Services

Recovery-focused care is now the preferred model of care that health professionals can utilize to support people with a mental illness to achieve their personal and clinical recovery. However, there remains a lack of practice guidelines and educational opportunities to support nurses to use recovery-focused care with consumers who may become aggressive. Objective: This paper reports the findings of research conducted with consumers to obtain their perception of how nurses can use recovery-focused care to reduce aggression in all acute mental health including forensic mental health services. Research Design and Methods: Thirty-one people diagnosed with a mental illness participated in this study. The constructivist grounded theory method guided data collection, coding, and analysis to generate categories that described the consumer perspective. Results: Five categories emerged, and these were: 1) see the person as an individual with a unique lived experience, 2) dialogue to explore the reason for the behaviour, 3) use positive communication to encourage self-management, 4) promote personal comfort to de-escalate the risk for aggression, and 5) travel alongside the person to co-produce strategies for reducing aggression. Conclusion: The findings may be tested in future research to translate recovery principles into acute mental health settings. They can also be incorporated into nursing education and professional development training to increase understanding of consumer perspective of recovery-focused care in all acute mental health including forensic mental health services

Defining the chromatin signature of inducible genes in T cells

BACKGROUND Specific chromatin characteristics, especially the modification status of the core histone proteins, are associated with active and inactive genes. There is growing evidence that genes that respond to environmental or developmental signals may possess distinct chromatin marks. Using a T cell model and both genome-wide and gene-focused approaches, we examined the chromatin characteristics of genes that respond to T cell activation. RESULTS To facilitate comparison of genes with similar basal expression levels, we used expression-profiling data to bin genes according to their basal expression levels. We found that inducible genes in the lower basal expression bins, especially rapidly induced primary response genes, were more likely than their non-responsive counterparts to display the histone modifications of active genes, have RNA polymerase II (Pol II) at their promoters and show evidence of ongoing basal elongation. There was little or no evidence for the presence of active chromatin marks in the absence of promoter Pol II on these inducible genes. In addition, we identified a subgroup of genes with active promoter chromatin marks and promoter Pol II but no evidence of elongation. Following T cell activation, we find little evidence for a major shift in the active chromatin signature around inducible gene promoters but many genes recruit more Pol II and show increased evidence of elongation. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that the majority of inducible genes are primed for activation by having an active chromatin signature and promoter Pol II with or without ongoing elongation

Iron and zinc nutrition among premenopausal women

Premenopausal women are at increased risk of iron deficiency and this thesis indicated Australian women may also be at risk of zinc deficiency. There is a strong need to assess zinc status in the Australian population. Unlike other food sources of iron and zinc, meat consumption positively influenced iron and zinc status

Community of Ownership of Learning

New model of teaching and learning was introduced in our school to meet the needs of our students who seek greater autonomy connectivity as well as opportunities for socio-experiential learning The Connected Learning Pedagogy CLP was designed to mine the learning potential of the new social and digital media domain to create a community of ownership of learning promoting collaboration and connectedness among students lecturers and parents To support the implementation of CLP laboratories were equipped with computers and tablet PCs Through them students were connected to various social and digital media such as Facebook Moodle YouTube and iDe Lite ITE video portal to conduct their required research and learning The tablet PCs provided lecturers with the added advantage of mobility during lessons allowing them to facilitate the learning process with ease Students were engaged in many exciting ways through Apps in the tablet PCs In addition parents were connected to students learning through PRISM ITE Parents Real-time Information System on Mobile With the mobile apps PRISM parents are connected to realtime data on their child s learnin

Pseudotumor cerebri syndrome in childhood : incidence, clinical profile and risk factors in a national prospective population-based cohort study

Aim To investigate the epidemiology, clinical profile and risk factors of pseudotumor cerebri syndrome (PTCS) in children aged 1-16 years. Methods A national prospective population-based cohort study over 25 months. Newly diagnosed PTCS cases notified via British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) were ascertained using classical diagnostic criteria and categorised according to 2013 revised diagnostic criteria. We derived national age, sex and weight-specific annual incidence rates and assessed effects of sex and weight category. Results We identified 185 PTCS cases of which 166 also fulfilled revised diagnostic criteria. The national annual incidence (95% CI) of childhood PTCS aged 1-16 years was 0.71 (0.57- 0.87) per 100,000 population increasing with age and weight to 4.18 and 10.7 per 100,000 in obese 12-15 year old boys and girls respectively. Incidence rates under 7 years were similar in both sexes. From 7 years onwards, the incidence in girls was double that in boys, but only in overweight (including obese) children. In 12-15 year old children, an estimated 82% of the incidence of PTCS was attributable to obesity. Two subgroups of PTCS were apparent: 168 (91%) cases aged from 7 years frequently presented on medication and with headache, and were predominantly female and obese. The remaining 17 (9%) cases under 7 years often lacked these risk factors and commonly presented with new onset squint. Conclusions This uniquely largest population-based study of childhood PTCS will inform the design of future intervention studies. It suggests that weight reduction is central to the prevention of PTCS