In deep water

The Post Qualifying Social Work Part One Programme might be in murky waters, but that doesn't mean 'throwing the baby out with the bath water', as Keith Brown, Natasha Young and Steven Keen explain

Offset Masking in a Divided Visual Field Study

A problem in divided visual field studies which use event-related potentials as a dependent measure is the large number of horizontal eye movements participants make during experimental trials. Past attention research suggests that eye movements to lateralized targets should be significantly reduced using a dynamic, offset mask, causing a reduction in attentional capture. The current study attempted to replicate past divided visual field language studies using offset masking procedures. Using a basic offset procedure, eye movements were not reduced in Experiment 1. Experiment 3, however, did see a significant reduction in eye movements using a dynamic offset masking procedure developed in Experiment 2. Low accuracy rates were a concern throughout. In conclusion, horizontal eye movements can be reduced with a dynamic offset procedure but the low accuracy rates and the inconsistent behavioral findings throughout the study do not support using this technique

Imagined Futures: The impact of mlearning and access to mobile technology on the role of the teacher

The use of mobile devices in education has long been predicted and imagined. Recent technological changes and increased affordability have enabled pioneering schools and educators to embark on mobile device initiatives. In the Irish educational context, schools were able to link their use of devices to anticipated curricular reforms, but lacked national guidance on the use of those devices for teaching and learning. This study concerned itself with the impact of mobile learning and devices on relationships of learning. The literature review revealed a significant gap in the research on the use of mobile devices in certain contexts and a lack of theoretical understanding of their use. The study employed a constructivist grounded theory methodology to explore the experiences of schools, teachers and students in Ireland. A sample of two post-primary schools and seven teachers, with their students, were recruited to the study. Data were gathered using interviews, video analysis, online observations and physical observations of classes. Some methods were extensions or innovations on traditional grounded theory approaches. These data were analysed through the process of constant comparison, from which codes and categories emerged. The categories demonstrated the importance of school context, the value of teachers’ virtual classrooms and the requirement to understand teachers’ beliefs. The findings add new knowledge to the field of mobile learning, and innovation in the methods of grounded theory, and yielded insights of value to school leaders and policy makers. The grounded theories which emerged placed emphasis on understanding a teacher’s beliefs, and demonstrated that those beliefs largely shape their use of technology. They also establish that mobile devices, despite substantial new benefits to users, were not intrinsically agents of pedagogical change

Is incident rheumatoid arthritis interstitial lung disease associated with methotrexate treatment? Results from a multivariate analysis in the ERAS and ERAN inception cohorts

© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.Objectives To assess predictive factors for rheumatoid arthritis interstitial lung disease (RA-ILD) in two early RA inception cohorts with a focus on methotrexate (MTX) exposure. Design Multicenter prospective early RA inception cohort studies; the early RA study (ERAS) and the early RA network (ERAN) Setting Secondary care, ERAS 9 centers, ERAN 23 centers in England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland Participants Patients with new diagnosis of RA, n=2701.Standardised data including demographics, drug therapies and clinical outcomes including the presence of RA-ILD were collected at baseline, within 3- 6 months, at 12 months and annually thereafter. Primary and secondary outcome measures Primary outcome was the association of MTX exposure on RA-ILD diagnosis. Secondary outcomes were the association of demographic, comorbid and RA specific factors on RA-ILD diagnosis and the association of MTX exposure on time to RA-ILD diagnosis. Results Of 92 eligible ILD cases, 39 occurred in 1578 (2.5%) MTX exposed and 53 in 1114 (4.8%) non-MTX exposed cases. The primary analysis of RA-ILD cases only developing after any csDMARD treatment (n=67) showed MTX exposure not to be associated with incident RA-ILD (O.R. 0.85 CI 0.49, 1.49 p=0.578) and a non-significant trend for delayed ILD diagnosis (O.R. 0.54 CI 0.28, 1.06 p=0.072). In an extended analysis including RA-ILD cases present at RA diagnosis (n=92), MTX exposure was associated with a significantly reduced risk of incident RA-ILD (O.R. 0.48, CI 0.3, 0.79 p=0.004) and longer time to ILD diagnosis (O.R. 0.41, CI 0.23, 0.75 p=0.004). Other independent baseline associations with incident RA-ILD were higher age of RA onset, ever smoking, male gender, rheumatoid nodules and longer time from first RA symptom to first out-patient visit. Conclusions MTX treatment was not associated with an increased risk of RA-ILD diagnosis. On the contrary evidence suggested that MTX may delay the onset of ILD.Peer reviewe

Vital Collaboratives, Alliances, and Partnerships: A Search for Key Elements of an Effective Public-Private Partnership.

Owing to the significant structural changes that have occurred in the global marketplace over the past 2 decades, a corresponding increase of public-private partnerships have been established among the business sector, local governments, and public community colleges. This qualitative project sought to identify and substantiate key elements that may be common to the formation, implementation, and maintenance stages of public-private partnerships. Who or what minimum conditions are necessary to the successful navigation of each stage? What obstacles typically arise during each stage, and how are they managed or circumvented? What sorts of benefits are generated through these partnerships and what measures may be applied to determine whether a partnership is meeting its mission objectives or not? To investigate these elements, the researcher interviewed 18 key stakeholders directly involved with 1 or more partnerships between 1 or more divisions of a community college located in Tennessee (CCTN) and their respective for-profit private sector concerns. Data collected were entered into the NVivo8 program for qualitative coding, analysis, and interpretation. Data analysis suggested that visionary and innovative leadership was critical to the formation and implementation of partnerships; key themes of people, training, business, and need influenced the life cycle of the partnership; persons identified as champions formed the critical mass necessary to create and sustain partnerships; and both public and private sectors implemented informal and formal assessments, but differences existed in how and what they measured to determine the efficacy of each partnership. By substantiating, uncovering, or affirming common elements relevant to the establishment and maintenance of public-private partnerships as described in existing literature and this study, partnership stakeholders may find additional perspectives that may assist and guide the creation, implementation, and assessment of effective, mutually-beneficial public-private partnerships

A guide to good practice in modeling semantics for authors and referees

This opinion piece makes some suggestions about guidelines for modeling semantics that can be referred to by authors and referees. We discuss descriptions of model structures, different forms of simulation and prediction, descriptions of different sources of uncertainty in modeling practice, the language of model validation, and concepts of predictability and fitness-for-purpose. While not expecting universal agreement on these suggestions, given the loose usage of words in the literature, we hope that the discussion of the issues involved will at least give pause for thought and encourage good practice in model development and applications. Key Points Semantics of hydrological modelling lack clarity Clarifications for simulation and forecasting and treatment of uncertainty Clarifications for model evaluation and falsificatio

Upper Cretaceous ammonites from the Gulf Coast of the United States

UT Librarie

History of geology at the University of Texas

Special issue for Geology Building dedication, November 16-17, 1967UT Librarie

Cretaceous paleogeography : implications of endemic ammonite faunas

UT Librarie

Computation of the Scharlau Invariant, I

The Scharlau invariant determines whether or not a finite group has a fixed point free representation over a field:\ \ if $0$, yes, otherwise, no. Until now it was known to be one of $0$, $1$, $p$, $p^2$ for $p$ a prime dividing the order of the group. We eliminate $p^2$ as a possibility. Work of Scharlau [Sch] reduces the question to the above list with $p^2$ being possible for the groups $\text{SL}_2({\Bbb Z}_p)$ for $p$ a Fermat prime larger than $5$. A computation using GAP in the Senior Thesis [Y] of the second author solves the problem for $p = 17$. With this motivation, we found a short proof of the result not requiring a computer.Comment: 7 page