ANTHROZOOLOGY IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: A MULTIPHASE MIXED METHODS STUDY OF ANIMAL-RELATED EDUCATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD

This study is about the features of educational experience in early childhood linked to animals, with a particular emphasis on the role and perspectives of early education practitioners (EEPs) in England. It includes a consideration of the influences of the earlier scholars and philosophers and a shift in pedagogy and methods for young children’s education; about animals, with animals and ‘as nature’. The study ‘maps’ the status of animal-related education in early childhood and it notes a decline in animal-assisted learning which has occurred as an outcome of particular political activities, legislation, and other factors. The research is both exploratory and confirmatory and utilised a mixed methods bricolage as a methodology, method and philosophy. There are three phases of research; an evaluation of the status of animal-assisted and animal-related learning in early childhood education, an inquiry into the attitudes and perspectives of early education practitioners and the development and piloting of a framework to support early education practitioners for animal-related education. The action-oriented final phase includes the piloting of an ‘Animal Aware School’ scheme and a number of dissemination activities and these are evaluated. An outcome of the research is the identification of the association between animal-related education and the global agenda for a Sustainable Future (SF) and the emergence of the notion of ‘noticing animals’. The findings of this thesis make an original contribution to knowledge in the field in three ways; 1) There has been a collection of new data – predominantly the perspectives of early education practitioners about animal-related education in early childhood – and a first systematic review of relevant texts and discourse, 2) This is a first inquiry at the intersection of the anthrozoology, early childhood education and psychology fields of study about animal-related education in early childhood, and 3) There has been the creation of a new term ‘Early Childhood Educational Anthrozoology’ which has not been in usage before and will help with future discourse

University student settlement and wellbeing with dogs as transitional support

This paper considers the topic of student wellbeing using the lens of a different type of support mechanism – ‘dog borrowing’ – which builds on prior research about emotion work and human-animal interactions but in the context of student transitions and pastoral care in higher education. This novel study was about the experiences of students settling into their university life and how, through a facilitated opportunity for students to connect to a dog and community partners, universities can meet mental health standards for wellbeing support. The findings outlined in this paper provide new insight into; how the university ethos and environment can be viewed as more personalised and emotionally supportive, how different kinds of relationships can support emotion state regulation conducive to wellbeing and effective learning and the ways that a human-animal bond can enhance connection with the community and provide social support for university students who have moved away from home

Un sistema distribuido para el procesamiento paralelo de algoritmos genéticos

Un sistema distribuido, básicamente, permite que varias tareas se desarrollen en forma conjunta siguiendo un enfoque competitivo o cooperativo. El fundamento de esta última perspectiva está en alcanzar mayor rapidez en la resolución de un único problema. Este tipo de enfoque es el adecuado para aquellas aplicaciones que son inherentemente paralelas. Los algoritmos genéticos son, esencialmente, algoritmos de búsqueda intrínsecamente paralelos. El presente trabajo propone una arquitectura distribuida que permite el procesamiento paralelo de algoritmos genéticos para la posterior evaluación de su performance.Eje: AplicacionesRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Un sistema distribuido para el procesamiento paralelo de algoritmos genéticos

Un sistema distribuido, básicamente, permite que varias tareas se desarrollen en forma conjunta siguiendo un enfoque competitivo o cooperativo. El fundamento de esta última perspectiva está en alcanzar mayor rapidez en la resolución de un único problema. Este tipo de enfoque es el adecuado para aquellas aplicaciones que son inherentemente paralelas. Los algoritmos genéticos son, esencialmente, algoritmos de búsqueda intrínsecamente paralelos. El presente trabajo propone una arquitectura distribuida que permite el procesamiento paralelo de algoritmos genéticos para la posterior evaluación de su performance.Eje: AplicacionesRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Constructor paralelo de planificaciones

Scheduling es un área activa de investigación en Inteligencia Artificial Aplicada. El interés en esta área es planificar adecuadamente la asignación de un número limitado de recursos a determinadas tareas que se deben desarrollar en el tiempo. Existen un número de técnicas heurísticas que han realizado contribuciones notables al problema de scheduling, entre ellas los algoritmos genéticos y otras variantes de la Computación Evolutiva. Estos algoritmos tienen la capacidad de descubrir planificaciones cercanas a las óptimas mucho más rápido debido a su paralelismo implícito. Varias implementaciones ya realizadas en esta dirección muestran que los algoritmos genéticos trabajan mejor cuando en la representación del cromosoma que utilizan se incorpora conocimiento específico del problema de modo tal que permita trabajar con operadores de recombinación avanzados. La elección de este tipo de representación indirecta del cromosoma requiere de un decodificador o "schedulers builder ", el cual transforme la representación del cromosoma en una planificación legal. En otras palabras los schedule builder deben garantizar la factibilidad y consistencia de cada planificación.Eje: Procesamiento concurrente, paralelo y distribuido. Procesamiento de imágenes.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Constructor paralelo de planificaciones

Scheduling es un área activa de investigación en Inteligencia Artificial Aplicada. El interés en esta área es planificar adecuadamente la asignación de un número limitado de recursos a determinadas tareas que se deben desarrollar en el tiempo. Existen un número de técnicas heurísticas que han realizado contribuciones notables al problema de scheduling, entre ellas los algoritmos genéticos y otras variantes de la Computación Evolutiva. Estos algoritmos tienen la capacidad de descubrir planificaciones cercanas a las óptimas mucho más rápido debido a su paralelismo implícito. Varias implementaciones ya realizadas en esta dirección muestran que los algoritmos genéticos trabajan mejor cuando en la representación del cromosoma que utilizan se incorpora conocimiento específico del problema de modo tal que permita trabajar con operadores de recombinación avanzados. La elección de este tipo de representación indirecta del cromosoma requiere de un decodificador o "schedulers builder ", el cual transforme la representación del cromosoma en una planificación legal. En otras palabras los schedule builder deben garantizar la factibilidad y consistencia de cada planificación.Eje: Procesamiento concurrente, paralelo y distribuido. Procesamiento de imágenes.Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Students’ Emotion Regulation and School-Related Wellbeing: Longitudinal Models Juxtaposing Between- and Within-Person Perspectives

There is a lack of research examining how students’ emotion regulation is linked to their wellbeing at school. To address this gap in the current literature, we examined reciprocal relations between two important emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and school-related wellbeing over 12 months across two school years. We collected data from 2,365 secondary and upper secondary students in England (aged 11-19 years) across three waves. Juxtaposing between-person and within-person perspectives, we used a tripartite (three-part) latent cross-lagged panel model (CLPM), and a tripartite latent random intercept-cross lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to examine the directional ordering of the two strategies and wellbeing over time. Both the CLPM and RICLPM showed that reappraisal and school-related wellbeing were reciprocally related. Reappraisal positively predicted school-related wellbeing, and school-related wellbeing positively predicted reappraisal. Reappraisal also negatively predicted subsequent suppression, but not vice versa. Suppression and school-related wellbeing were not linked. Findings inform the design of intervention research in schools and colleges by highlighting the importance of cognitive reappraisal in the school-related wellbeing of adolescents

Heterogeneity assessment of functional T cell avidity.

The potency of cellular immune responses strongly depends on T cell avidity to antigen. Yet, functional avidity measurements are rarely performed in patients, mainly due to the technical challenges of characterizing heterogeneous T cells. The mean functional T cell avidity can be determined by the IFN-γ Elispot assay, with titrated amounts of peptide. Using this assay, we developed a method revealing the heterogeneity of functional avidity, represented by the steepness/hillslope of the peptide titration curve, documented by proof of principle experiments and mathematical modeling. Our data show that not only natural polyclonal CD8 T cell populations from cancer patients, but also monoclonal T cells differ strongly in their heterogeneity of functional avidity. Interestingly, clones and polyclonal cells displayed comparable ranges of heterogeneity. We conclude that besides the mean functional avidity, it is feasible and useful to determine its heterogeneity (hillslope) for characterizing T cell responses in basic research and patient investigation

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700