Evaluation of the Scottish Borders Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) programme

In the light of decades of worldwide research that implies that the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (FIE) programme has potential to enhance learning and attainment (Romney and Samuels, 2001) a pilot programme was launched in Scottish Borders Council schools in September 2005. Since the programme includes activities to help pupils to control impulsive behaviour, most pupils selected for the programme had a history of underachieving due to social, emotional or behavioural problems. The FIE programme is described in Section 1. There are two strands to the pilot project: one is equipping teachers to deliver the FIE programme to the most vulnerable pupils, the other is the adoption of the Feuerstein approach to mediating learning across schools. While the first strand is very resource intensive, the second strand can operate with more modest investment. In 2005-2006, 32 primary and secondary teachers, including members of school Senior Management Teams, volunteered for the Feuerstein accredited training and began to deliver the FIE programme with the selected pupils for around 80 minutes per week. Scottish Borders Newly Qualified Teachers (probationers) also participated for three days in the area of the Feuerstein training that deals specifically with mediated learning. Since there is extensive research evidence that the quality of the teacher’s mediation is a major influence on learning, early career training in mediation was thought likely to yield long-term dividends. This evaluation is one of many of FIE programmes. The Scottish Borders programme is a pilot project that had been operational for around six months (excluding school holiday weeks) when the evaluation began. Typically, published evaluations are of FIE programmes that have been running for at least two years and often these programmes provided more lessons than in the Borders pilot project

A new transgenic reporter line reveals Wnt-dependent Snai2 re-expression and cranial neural crest differentiation in Xenopus

During vertebrate embryogenesis, the cranial neural crest (CNC) forms at the neural plate border and subsequently migrates and differentiates into many types of cells. The transcription factor Snai2, which is induced by canonical Wnt signaling to be expressed in the early CNC, is pivotal for CNC induction and migration in Xenopus. However, snai2 expression is silenced during CNC migration, and its roles at later developmental stages remain unclear. We generated a transgenic X. tropicalis line that expresses enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP) driven by the snai2 promoter/enhancer, and observed eGFP expression not only in the pre-migratory and migrating CNC, but also the differentiating CNC. This transgenic line can be used directly to detect deficiencies in CNC development at various stages, including subtle perturbation of CNC differentiation. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry confirm that Snai2 is re-expressed in the differentiating CNC. Using a separate transgenic Wnt reporter line, we show that canonical Wnt signaling is also active in the differentiating CNC. Blocking Wnt signaling shortly after CNC migration causes reduced snai2 expression and impaired differentiation of CNC-derived head cartilage structures. These results suggest that Wnt signaling is required for snai2 re-expression and CNC differentiation

HST Imaging of the Globular Clusters in the Fornax Cluster: NGC 1399 and NGC 1404

The Fornax cluster galaxies NGC 1399 and NGC 1404 are ideal for studying the effects of a cluster environment on globular cluster systems. Here we present new optical imaging of these two galaxies from both the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory's 1.5m telescope. The combination of both data sets provides unique insight on the spatial and colour distribution of globular clusters. From B-I colours, we find that both galaxies have a broad globular cluster metallicity distribution that is inconsistent with a single population. Two Gaussians provide a reasonable representation of the metallicity distribution in each galaxy. The metal-rich subpopulation is more centrally concentrated than the metal-poor one. We show that the radial metallicity gradient can be explained by the changing relative mix of the two globular cluster subpopulations. We derive globular cluster surface density profiles, and find that they are flatter (i.e. more extended) than the underlying starlight. The total number of globular clusters and specific frequency are calculated to be N = 5700 +/- 500, S_N = 11.5 +/- 1.0 for NGC 1399 and N = 725 +/- 145, S_N = 2.0 +/- 0.5 for NGC 1404. Our results are compared to the expectations of globular cluster formation scenarios.Comment: 21 pages, Latex, 13 figures, submitted to MNRA

Cancer risk in socially marginalised women: An exploratory study

Background: Cancer is a leading cause of premature death in women worldwide, and is associated with socio-economic disadvantage. Yet many interventions designed to reduce risk and improve health fail to reach the most marginalised with the greatest needs. Our study focused on socially marginalised women at two women's centres that provide support and training to women in the judicial system or who have experienced domestic abuse. Methods: This qualitative study was framed within a sociological rather than behavioural perspective involving thirty participants in individual interviews and focus groups. It sought to understand perceptions of, and vulnerability to, cancer; decision making (including screening); cancer symptom awareness and views on health promoting activities within the context of the women's social circumstances. Findings: Women's experiences of social adversity profoundly shaped their practices, aspirations and attitudes towards risk, health and healthcare. We found that behaviours, such as unhealthy eating and smoking need to be understood in the context of inherently risky lives. They were a coping mechanism whilst living in extreme adverse circumstances, navigating complex everyday lives and structural failings. Long term experiences of neglect, harm and violence, often by people they should be able to trust, led to low self-esteem and influenced their perceptions of risk and self-care. This was reinforced by negative experiences of navigating state services and a lack of control and agency over their own lives. Conclusion: Women in this study were at high risk of cancer, but it would be better to understand these risk factors as markers of distress and duress. Without appreciating the wider determinants of health and systemic disadvantage of marginalised groups, and addressing these with a structural rather than an individual response, we risk increasing cancer inequities by failing those who are in the greatest nee

One-pot access to L-5,6-dihalotryptophans and L-alknyltryptophans using tryptophan synthase

The authors thank the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013/ERC grant agreement no 614779, and the University of St Andrews for a studentship (to D. R. M. Smith).We report, for the first time, the use of tryptophan synthase in the generation of L- dihalotryptophans and L-alkynyltryptophans. These previously unpublished compounds will be useful tools in the generation of probes for chemical biology, in biosynthetic diversification and as convenient building blocks for synthesis.PostprintPeer reviewe

Degradation and forgone removals increase the carbon impact of intact forest loss by 626%

Intact tropical forests, free from substantial anthropogenic influence, store and sequester large amounts of atmospheric carbon but are currently neglected in international climate policy. We show that between 2000 and 2013, direct clearance of intact tropical forest areas accounted for 3.2% of gross carbon emissions from all deforestation across the pantropics. However, full carbon accounting requires the consideration of forgone carbon sequestration, selective logging, edge effects, and defaunation. When these factors were considered, the net carbon impact resulting from intact tropical forest loss between 2000 and 2013 increased by a factor of 6 (626%), from 0.34 (0.37 to 0.21) to 2.12 (2.85 to 1.00) petagrams of carbon (equivalent to approximately 2 years of global land use change emissions). The climate mitigation value of conserving the 549 million ha of tropical forest that remains intact is therefore significant but will soon dwindle if their rate of loss continues to accelerate

Nutritional status and clinical outcome in postterm neonates undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease.

OBJECTIVE: Poor growth is a common complication in infants with congenital heart disease. There has been much focus on low birth weight as having increased risk of adverse outcomes following neonatal heart surgery. In this study, we examined whether preoperative nutritional status, measured by admission weight-for-age z score, was associated with postoperative clinical outcome. DESIGN: Retrospective case series. SETTING: Pediatric Cardiac ICU at the Royal Brompton Hospital. PATIENTS: Neonates undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease. Those undergoing ductus arteriosus ligation alone were excluded. Children with coexisting noncardiac morbidity were excluded. Outcome variables included prevalence of postoperative complications (including sepsis, delayed chest closure, renal impairment, and necrotizing enterocolitis), duration of ventilation, intensive care stay, postoperative mortality, and mortality at 1 year after surgery. INTERVENTIONS: None. Analysis of patient data only. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Two hundred forty-eight neonates fulfilled the entry criteria. Median (interquartile range) age was 7 days (2-15 d), median (interquartile range) weight was 3.3 kg (2.91-3.6 kg), and median weight-for-age z score was -0.77 (-1.44 to 0.01). Twenty-eight children (11%) had a weight-for-age z score of less than -2. There was no evidence that children with lower weight-for-age z score had less severe surgery as measured by the Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery 1 score. In multivariable regression analysis, the weight-for-age z at admission had strong correlation with the number of days free of respiratory support (invasive and noninvasive ventilation) at 28 days (p < 0.0001) and with all-cause mortality at 1 year (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Poor nutritional status as measured by weight-for-age z is associated with adverse short- and long-term outcomes in neonates undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available at http://journals.lww.com/pccmjournal/Abstract/2015/06000/Nutritional_Status_and_Clinical_Outcome_in.7.aspx

Impact of introducing a faecal immunochemical test (FIT) for haemoglobin into primary care on the outcome of patients with new bowel symptoms:A prospective cohort study

Objective To determine whether a faecal immunochemical test (FIT) for faecal haemoglobin concentration (f-Hb) can be safely implemented in primary care as a rule-out test for significant bowel disease (SBD) (colorectal cancer (CRC), higher risk adenoma (HRA) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)) when used as an adjunct to the clinical assessment of new bowel symptoms. Design Single-centre prospective cohort study of all patients who attended primary care and submitted a FIT in the first calendar year of the service beginning December 2015. f-Hb was estimated using HM-JACKarc (Kyowa Medex) with a clinical cut-off of ≥10 μg Hb/g faeces. Incident cases of CRC were verified via anonymised record linkage to the Scottish Cancer Registry. Results 5422 patients submitted 5660 FIT specimens, of which 5372 were analysed (positivity: 21.9%). 2848 patients were referred immediately to secondary care and three with f-Hb &lt;10 μg/g presented acutely within days with obstructing CRC. 1447 completed colonoscopy in whom overall prevalence of SBD was 20.5% (95 CRC (6.6%), 133 HRA (9.2%) and 68 IBD (4.7%)); 6.6% in patients with f-Hb &lt;10 μg/g vs 32.3% in patients with f-Hb ≥10 μg/g. One CRC was detected at CT colonoscopy. 2521 patients were not immediately referred (95.3% had f-Hb &lt;10 μg/g) of which four (0.2%) later developed CRC. Record linkage identified no additional CRC cases within a follow-up period of 23-35 months. Conclusion In primary care, measurement of f-Hb, in conjunction with clinical assessment, can safely and objectively determine a patient's risk of SBD.</p