On the instructional triangle and sources of justification for actions in mathematics teaching

We elaborate on the notion of the instructional triangle, to address the question of how the nature of instructional activity can help justify actions in mathematics teaching. We propose a practical rationality of mathematics teaching composed of norms for the relationships between elements of the instructional system and obligations that a person in the position of the mathematics teacher needs to satisfy. We propose such constructs as articulations of a rationality that can help explain the instructional actions a teacher takes in promoting and recognizing learning, supporting work, and making decisions.The ideas reported in this paper have been developed in part with the support of National Science Foundation grants ESI-0353285 and DRL-0918425 to the authors.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91281/1/On_the_instructional_triangle_PH&DC_May2012.pdf-

Kinstate intervention in ethnic conflicts : Albania and Turkey compared

Albania and Turkey did not act in overtly irredentist ways towards their ethnic brethren in neighboring states after the end of communism. Why, nonetheless, did Albania facilitate the increase of ethnic conflict in Kosovo and Macedonia, while Turkey did not, with respect to the Turks of Bulgaria? I argue that kin-states undergoing transition are more prone to intervene in external conflicts than states that are not, regardless of the salience of minority demands in the host-state. The transition weakens the institutions of the kin-state. Experiencing limited institutional constraints, self-seeking state officials create alliances with secessionist and autonomist movements across borders alongside their own ideological, clan-based and particularistic interests. Such alliances are often utilized to advance radical domestic agendas. Unlike in Albania's transition environment, in Turkey there were no emerging elites that could potentially form alliances and use external movements to legitimize their own domestic existence or claims

Impact of COVID-19 on cancer service delivery: results from an international survey of oncology clinicians.

To report clinician-perceived changes to cancer service delivery in response to COVID-19. Multidisciplinary Australasian cancer clinician survey in collaboration with the European Society of Medical Oncology. Between May and June 2020 clinicians from 70 countries were surveyed; majority from Europe (n=196; 39%) with 1846 COVID-19 cases per million people, Australia (AUS)/New Zealand (NZ) (n=188; 38%) with 267/236 per million and Asia (n=75; 15%) with 121 per million at time of survey distribution. Medical oncologists (n=372; 74%), radiation oncologists (n=91; 18%) and surgical oncologists (n=38; 8%). Eighty-nine per cent of clinicians reported altering clinical practices; more commonly among those with versus without patients diagnosed with COVID-19 (n=142; 93% vs n=225; 86%, p=0.03) but regardless of community transmission levels (p=0.26). More European clinicians (n=111; 66.1%) had treated patients diagnosed with COVID-19 compared with Asia (n=20; 27.8%) and AUS/NZ (n=8; 4.8%), p<0.001. Many clinicians (n=307; 71.4%) reported concerns that reduced access to standard treatments during the pandemic would negatively impact patient survival. The reported proportion of consultations using telehealth increased by 7.7-fold, with 25.1% (n=108) of clinicians concerned that patient survival would be worse due to this increase. Clinicians reviewed a median of 10 fewer outpatients/week (including non-face to face) compared with prior to the pandemic, translating to 5010 fewer specialist oncology visits per week among the surveyed group. Mental health was negatively impacted for 52.6% (n=190) of clinicians. Clinicians reported widespread changes to oncology services, in regions of both high and low COVID-19 case numbers. Clinician concerns of potential negative impacts on patient outcomes warrant objective assessment, with system and policy implications for healthcare delivery at large

Exploring how parents make sense of change in parent-child psychotherapy

Background: Understanding how change occurs in psychotherapy is imperative in informing clinical practice. Increasing attention has been given to the role that qualitative research could play in enhancing our understanding of therapeutic change. Although quantitative research suggests that parent-child psychotherapy is effective in facilitating change, no research to date has focused on how parents make sense of their change experience. Methods: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyse semi-structured interviews of eight parents who had completed parent-child psychotherapy about their understanding of change. Results: Five master themes emerged which encapsulated participant’s understanding of change. These included constructing a survivor narrative, the experience of being understood enabling further understanding, adjusting expectations and practising acceptance and feeling empowered to relinquish control. The final theme summarised how despite psychotherapy being conceptualised as a ‘precious’ resource, there was a sense that its limitations could negatively impact participant’s wellbeing. Conclusions: Meaningful elements of change were identified from the parents’ experience. Findings were discussed in relation to previous research and limitations were examined. Implications for future research included using other qualitative methods to explore client experience. Implications for practice were noted, including enriched understanding of client change experience enabling therapists to provide a more attuned therapy

Evidence and Policy in Aid-Dependent Settings

This chapter examines how the political dynamics of aid relationships can affect the use of evidence within health policymaking. Empirical examples from Cambodia, Ethiopia and Ghana illustrate how relationships between national governments and donor agencies influence the ways in which evidence is generated, selected, or utilised to inform policymaking. We particularly consider how relationships with donors influence the underlying systems and processes of evidence use. We find a number of issues affecting which bodies or forms of evidence are taken to be policy relevant, including: levels of local technical capacity to utilise or synthesise evidence; differing stakeholder framing of issues; and the influence of non-state actors on sector-wide systems of agenda setting. The chapter also reflects on some of the key governance implications of these arrangements in which global actors promote forms of evidence use – often under a banner of technical efficiency – with limited consideration for local representation or accountability

The Impact of a Community-based Pilot Health Education Intervention for Older People as Caregivers of Orphaned and Sick Children as a Result of HIV and AIDS in South Africa

The increasing HIV and AIDS epidemic in South Africa poses a substantial burden to older people, in particular older women who mainly provide care for sick adult children and their grandchildren who have become orphaned and rendered vulnerable by the death or illness of their parents. In this study, 202 isiXhosa speaking older caregivers from Motherwell in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa were trained to provide care for grandchildren and adult children living with HIV or AIDS. Based on a community needs assessment, a health education intervention comprising four modules was designed to improve skills and knowledge which would be used to assist older people in their care-giving tasks. Some topics were HIV and AIDS knowledge, effective intergenerational communication, providing home-based basic nursing care, accessing social services and grants, and relaxation techniques. Structured one-on-one interviews measured differences between pre-intervention and post-intervention scores among those who attended all four modules vs. those that missed one or more of the sessions. The results demonstrated that older people who participated in all four workshops perceived themselves more able and in control to provide nursing care. The participants also showed a more positive attitude towards people living with HIV or AIDS and reported an increased level of HIV and AIDS knowledge. The results provided valuable information upon which the development of future interventions may be based and psychosocial and structural needs of the older caregivers may be addressed by relevant stakeholders

Duration of Treatment for Pseudomonas aeruginosa Bacteremia : a Retrospective Study

Introduction: There is no consensus regarding optimal duration of antibiotic therapy for Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteremia. We aimed to evaluate the impact of short antibiotic course. Methods: We present a retrospective multicenter study including patients with P. aeruginosa bacteremia during 2009-2015. We evaluated outcomes of patients treated with short (6-10 days) versus long (11-15 days) antibiotic courses. The primary outcome was a composite of 30-day mortality or bacteremia recurrence and/or persistence. Univariate and inverse probability treatment-weighted (IPTW) adjusted multivariate analysis for the primary outcome was performed. To avoid immortal time bias, the landmark method was used. Results: We included 657 patients; 273 received a short antibiotic course and 384 a long course. There was no significant difference in baseline characteristics of patients. The composite primary outcome occurred in 61/384 patients in the long-treatment group (16%) versus 32/273 in the short-treatment group (12%) (p = 0.131). Mortality accounted for 41/384 (11%) versus 25/273 (9%) of cases, respectively. Length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in the short group [median 13 days, interquartile range (IQR) 9-21 days, versus median 15 days, IQR 11-26 days, p = 0.002]. Ten patients in the long group discontinued antibiotic therapy owing to adverse events, compared with none in the short group. On univariate and multivariate analyses, duration of therapy was not associated with the primary outcome. Conclusions: In this retrospective study, 6-10 days of antibiotic course for P. aeruginosa bacteremia were as effective as longer courses in terms of survival and recurrence. Shorter therapy was associated with reduced length of stay and less drug discontinuation

Persistent Place-Making in Prehistory: the Creation, Maintenance, and Transformation of an Epipalaeolithic Landscape

Most archaeological projects today integrate, at least to some degree, how past people engaged with their surroundings, including both how they strategized resource use, organized technological production, or scheduled movements within a physical environment, as well as how they constructed cosmologies around or created symbolic connections to places in the landscape. However, there are a multitude of ways in which archaeologists approach the creation, maintenance, and transformation of human-landscape interrelationships. This paper explores some of these approaches for reconstructing the Epipalaeolithic (ca. 23,000–11,500 years BP) landscape of Southwest Asia, using macro- and microscale geoarchaeological approaches to examine how everyday practices leave traces of human-landscape interactions in northern and eastern Jordan. The case studies presented here demonstrate that these Epipalaeolithic groups engaged in complex and far-reaching social landscapes. Examination of the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic (EP) highlights that the notion of “Neolithization” is somewhat misleading as many of the features we use to define this transition were already well-established patterns of behavior by the Neolithic. Instead, these features and practices were enacted within a hunter-gatherer world and worldview