A Critical Evaluation of EPs’ Cognitive Assessment Work With Children and Young People With English as an Additional Language

Conducting culturally and linguistically fair assessments is an ethical requirement for educational psychologists, particularly when working with children and young people with English as an additional language (EAL). Despite a number of existing professional guidelines and frameworks for practice, the evidence base on how to address cultural and linguistic bias when working with this population is still limited, especially in the UK context. Findings from an interview with three experienced educational psychologists highlight an increased awareness around this issue and the need for further studies and guidance on non-discriminatory assessment practice for children and young people with EAL

Educational Psychologists’ Views Around the Inclusion of Children with Special Educational Needs and Disability – Do Educational Psychologists Have a Role to Play in Working Towards Inclusive Education?

In the attempt to fill identified gaps in the literature, this research explored the views of 12 educational psychologists (EPs) around the inclusive education (IE) of students with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) in the UK. Considering the current debates within the British socio-political context and legislative background, as well as the call for EPs to work more systemically and inclusively, this study addressed how EPs construct their views and professional experiences of inclusion and perceive their role in promoting inclusive practices in the future. The research paradigm followed a relativist ontology and a social constructionist epistemology, which are linked to a social model of disability. The study adopted a qualitative methodology: EPs’ views were gathered through individual semi-structured interviews, which were transcribed verbatim and analysed through Thematic Analysis (TA). The findings were analysed inductively and interpreted by referring to the existing literature and relevant psychological theories. A reflexive approach was maintained throughout the research and issues of trustworthiness were addressed. Despite some variability in definitions and models of inclusion, reflective of wider controversies in defining IE, the findings highlight a strong EP commitment to inclusion, underpinned by social justice, children’s rights, and valuing diversity. From the participants’ perspective, inclusion underpins most of EP practice, both at the individual and systems level. Several barriers to IE were identified, some of which concern the EP role. These led to the identification of areas for professional development, involving EPs’ sense of agency and positioning, as well as strengths related to EP practice in promoting inclusion, as EPs can play an important part in advocating for children and young people (CYP) and empowering the systems around them. Implications for practice were built in a framework, involving professional developments around the EP practice at both the individual and systems levels, as well as around EPs’ professional identity. EPs are in a unique position to foster the development of inclusive practices and this study has the potential to increase the professional awareness and self-confidence that are required to challenge existing systemic barriers to IE

Early Accurate Results for Advanced Analytics on MapReduce

Approximate results based on samples often provide the only way in which advanced analytical applications on very massive data sets can satisfy their time and resource constraints. Unfortunately, methods and tools for the computation of accurate early results are currently not supported in MapReduce-oriented systems although these are intended for `big data'. Therefore, we proposed and implemented a non-parametric extension of Hadoop which allows the incremental computation of early results for arbitrary work-flows, along with reliable on-line estimates of the degree of accuracy achieved so far in the computation. These estimates are based on a technique called bootstrapping that has been widely employed in statistics and can be applied to arbitrary functions and data distributions. In this paper, we describe our Early Accurate Result Library (EARL) for Hadoop that was designed to minimize the changes required to the MapReduce framework. Various tests of EARL of Hadoop are presented to characterize the frequent situations where EARL can provide major speed-ups over the current version of Hadoop.Comment: VLDB201

Perceval Sutureless valves in isolated and concomitant AVR procedures: an economic model shows overall decrease of costs for isolated or combined operations

BACKGROUND: aortic valve replacement (AVR) the most common heart valve operation, accounts for a majority of all valve surgery performed in the elderly. The Perceval S (P) is a new aortic valve which is implanted without suturing, which causes a significant reduction in cross-clamping times (CCTs), and makes valve implantation easier and faster thanks to its collapsed profile. These features potentially allow the pool of operable patients to be expanded, even with minimally invasive surgery in isolated AVRs. AIM: to predict costs and outcomes of AVR procedures associated with this new valve in 4 European countries (Italy, France, Germany, and UK), as compared to traditional (T) valve implants, from the cost perspective of the hospital. METHOD: a probabilistic, patient-level simulation model was fully coded in WinBugs, permitting a seamless integration of parameter estimation and outcomes prediction, which was entirely based on the associated CCTs and on the surgical technique (mini-invasive [MiS] vs. full sternotomy [FS]), through published correlations. Unit cost were retrieved from official and literature sources for all countries. Besides the incorporated probabilistic sensitivity analysis, a series of deterministic sensitivity analyses was performed. RESULTS: the model predicts the use of the Perceval S valve to be associated with less complications and with savings (valve cost excluded), mainly related to a reduction in surgery costs and ICU/hospital bed days. These savings range from € 3,600 (Italy) to £ 3,900 (UK) for PFS in isolated AVRs and from about € 6,000 (Italy) to £ 6,700 (UK) for PMiS in isolated AVRs, and for PFS in concomitants. Extensive sensitivity analyses confirm the robustness of such findings.CONCLUSIONS: the results of the present analysis indicate that the hospital acquisition cost difference between the new sutureless Perceval S valve and traditional valves is offset by important savings in other cost items