An easy approach to obtaining clean-catch urine from infants

An easy approach to obtaining clean-catch urine from infants. Current collection methods leave much to be desired. But a new method may provide a quick alternative. Apply gauze soaked in cold sterile saline to the suprapubic area to stimulate infants ages 1 to 12 months to provide a clean-catch urine sample. Doing so produces significantly more clean-catch urine samples within 5 minutes than simply waiting for the patient to void, with no difference in contamination and with increased parental and provider satisfaction.Author: Laura Morris, MD, MSPH University of Missouri, Columbia

Understanding the place and meaning of physical activity in the lives of young people: An ethnographic study with two youth centres in a low-income urban area of Northern England

This study was conducted in response to the low levels of physical activity in young people in the UK (and elsewhere) that are considered a major public health challenge. Adopting a critical ethnographic approach, this study explores how physical activity fits into the daily lives of young people (13-21-year-olds) from two youth centres in an urban area of Northern England. This approach enabled the exploration of young people’s physical activity perceptions and practices within the context, complexities, and contingencies of their wider lives, rather than as a compartmentalised phenomenon. Drawing on recent re-conceptualisations of the life-course and anthropological theories of childhood, I show that changes in physical activity over time were enmeshed within life-phase expectations and experiences, but were also non-linear and contingent. Social expectations of adolescence limited some young people’s physical activity practices, and yet many etched out ways of being mobile and physically active, including re-living childhood games on the streets, parks, and at youth centres. Employing spatial theories, I explain how the young people negotiated their sense of safety in their local environments in order to be mobile; created places of their own for sociality; and used spaces and props in the material environment to engage in informal physical activity practices such as “hardcore parkour”. I lastly use Foucauldian and gender theories to re-think how understandings and practices of physical activity were gendered, and centred around the self and the body’s appearance and capability. Many of the young men in particular engaged in ‘self-bettering’ practices: some took up boxing to deal with challenges in their lives and some shaped muscular, fit, and ‘healthy’ bodies. This thesis critically challenges the dominant discourses that shape young people’s individualistic understandings of themselves, their lives, and their physical activity practices. Engaging closely with the young people’s actions and experiences helps to reveal how the socioeconomic and material environments, that young people negotiate in daily life, interact with their physical activity and mobility practices

Joy, passion and tenacity: A phenomenological study of why quality teachers continue to teach in high-challenge urban elementary schools .

Over the last decade, research into the importance of teacher quality has shown that the quality of the teacher in the classroom plays a very important role in student achievement. (Bembry, Jordan, Gomez, Anderson & Mendro, 1998; Darling-Hammond, 2000; Rivkin, Hanushek & Kain, 2002). In fact, further research has shown that students attending high-challenge schools, who have a quality teacher three consecutive years will achieve as well as their peers in schools not defined as high-challenge (Babu & Mendro, 2003; Haycock, 1998, 2004; Rivkin, Hanushek & Kain, 2002). Typically high-challenge schools have a student population comprised of a majority of minority students who are highly mobile, have high percentages of students on free/reduced lunch and are overcrowded.Twelve elementary school teachers identified by their principals as quality teachers were interviewed to determine why they choose to continue teaching in a high-challenge urban elementary school. All of the teachers worked in an urban school district located in the capital city of a southwestern state. Seven elementary schools from this district were identified as high-challenge based upon their size, majority-minority populations, and the free/reduced lunch percentage rate.In light of the research showing that students in these schools would benefit most from a quality teacher, it is discouraging that students in high-challenge schools typically do not have access to these teachers (The Education Trust, 2004). Fortunately, there are some exceptions, quality teachers who choose to teach in high-challenge schools. This phenomenological study endeavored to determine why quality teachers choose to teach in elementary schools with a high percentage of minority and low socioeconomic students.This study revealed that the teachers chose to stay for the following reasons: relationships with students, rewards, instructional focus, collegiality, feeling needed and a desire to help others, challenges and parents. These findings are important to school administrators at both the district and building level as they could assist in developing policies and procedures that will enhance the retention of the quality teachers that students in high-challenge urban elementary schools need and deserve

Developing the Whole Child Through Movement in the Music Classroom

The early twentieth century brought forth some very strong figures in the world of arts pedagogy. Among them were Carl Orff and Emile Jacque-Dalcroze. Both were composers as well as music educators. Both believed that in order for a musician to perform expressively rather than mechanically, one had to feel music in the body. Orff and Dalcroze followers today uphold these men’s idea that movement is an essential part of the music class. Seeking to feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about movement in teaching K-6 general music classes, I set out to research through books, films, my own movement experiences and activites through which I guided my students. Through the process, I discovered how important movement is for complete human development. In this paper I present examples of movement activities that can be incorporated in music classes. All examples have been tested in my classroom. Through the engagement of such activities we can find a means to bring craft beyond function and into the realm of art. We can be enriched through movement in our co-ordination, learning, problem solving, sense of community and healthy well being. We can find a means of self expres- sion as well as an empathy toward others, important ingredients for living in a free world

New design processes for knowledge exchange tools for the New IDEAS project

In this paper, we describe our research into designing tools for knowledge exchange on the New IDEAS project at ImaginationLancaster, a design research lab in Lancaster University. This paper will discuss the design process for designing tools that facilitate knowledge exchange, highlighting the challenges faced during the process. We go on to describe how to support others with designing knowledge exchange tools. We will discuss our experience of running a series of knowledge exchange labs as part of our research, in which participants from all of the faculties within Lancaster University co-designed tools and refer to the process of designing one of the tools - the Case Study Tool. At the end of the paper we outline our key principles for designing KE tools for others so that they can be customised and modified. This has implications for those who work in KE but do not already realise that they are designing KE tools, those who have a desire to understand how to design KE tools and those who work in the area of participatory, open or KE design who want to gain a further understanding of their design process and how to support others in designing or adapting their own KE tools

The Effect of Acceptance Training on Psychological and Physical Health Outcomes in Elders with Chronic Conditions

This pilot trial investigated the short and long-term effects of Acceptance Training (ACT) intervention on acceptance, perceived health, functional status, anxiety, and depression in elders with chronic conditions living in retirement communities (RCs). The ACT intervention combined Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy with music, relaxation, and guided imagery during six weekly 2-hour sessions. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 16 African-American and 46 White elders across four data collection points in six randomly selected RCs using well-established measures of perceived health, functional status, anxiety, and depression, and a measure of acceptance of chronic conditions adapted from a previous measure of acceptance of diabetes. While changes were found in perceived health, functional status, anxiety, and depression, the most significant changes occurred in the elders\u27 acceptance of chronic conditions immediately after the intervention (t = -2.62, P \u3c .02), and these changes persisted for 6 and 12 weeks (t\u27s = -2.74, -3.32, p\u27s \u3c .01), respectively. Although a 40% attrition rate reduced the sample size from 62 (N = 62) to 37 (N = 37), the significant increases in acceptance over time provide initial evidence for the fidelity of the ACT intervention

What BP target is appropriate for pregnant patients with mild chronic hypertension?

Treat mild chronic hypertension during pregnancy to a target of [greater than] 140/90 mm Hg to reduce the risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes.Cynthia Lombardo, MD, IBCLC; Laura Morris, MD, MSPH, FAAFP, (University of Missouri, Columbia)Includes bibliographical reference

Common Problems, Different Solutions : Learningfrom International Approaches to Improving MedicalServices Access for Underserved Populations

Canada shares with most OECD countries the problems associated with inequitable geographic access to physician services, and improving the geographic distribution of physicians is a policy preoccupation of all ministries of health in Canada today. Recent court challenges by newly-entering physicians to physician supply controls in B. C. and New Brunswick have brought the issue into sharp relief. The authors explore the degree to which the provinces have adopted common approaches to addressing these problems, and whether Canadian policy-makers have learned from international experience. The recent judgment in the Waldman case in B.C. is analyzed in terms of likely implications for future policies on the geographic distribution of physicians in Canada. The authors conclude that the B.C. and New Brunswick cases may lead to broad changes in health care policy direction by severely limiting the range of narrowly targeted policy options available to ministries of health across Canada

The Development of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh ‘Certificate in Practical Horticulture’

The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) has a long history of delivering high-quality practical horticultural training within the UK and abroad. In 2007 this training was formalised by the RBGE Education Department into the ‘RBGE Certificate in Practical Horticulture’ (CPH) programme. The vision for the CPH was to create an internationally recognised and standardised, yet flexible and practical horticultural qualification, predominantly, but not exclusively, for the botanic gardens sector. Providing a measurable educational outcome for international development projects is increasing the contribution that RBGE makes to target 15 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. This paper reviews the development of the CPH programme, through its initial conception, the writing of the first course syllabus, the evolution of the course structure and content, up to the course now being offered today. The initial success of the CPH is discussed, detailing the different locations in which the course has been delivered to date and the other gardens that are now offering the CPH themselves. Recent developments are discussed, including the endorsement of the course by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and the funding awarded by the Stanley Smith (UK) Horticultural Trust in 2010 for course development. The paper ends by highlighting the future objectives for the CPH, including the development of new and improved tutor and learner support materials, the offering of ‘train the trainer’ programmes that will facilitate the wider uptake of these courses and the vision for the programme to become a benchmark for practical horticultural training worldwide

An experimental design approach to the chemical characterisation of pectin polysaccharides extracted from Cucumis melo Inodorus

Extracted pectins have been utilised in a number of applications in both the food and pharmaceutical industries where they are generally used as gelling agents, thickeners and stabilisers, although a number of pectins have been shown to be bioactive. These functional properties will depend upon extraction conditions. A statistical experimental design approach was used to study the effects of extraction conditions pH, time and temperature on pectins extracted from Cucumis melo Inodorus. The results show that the chemical composition is very sensitive to these conditions and that this has a great influence on for example the degree of branching. Higher temperatures, lower pHs and longer extraction times lead to a loss of the more acid labile arabinofuranose residues present on the pectin side chain. The fitting of regression equations relating yield and composition to extraction conditions can therefore lead to tailor-made pectins for specific properties and/ or applications