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Hearing aids for otitis media with effusion in children: practicality and cost
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Bridging EAP and EMI: professional development for EAP teachers in Chinese higher education
Get PDFThe rapid expansion of English Medium Instruction (EMI) in higher education, particularly in non-Anglophone contexts, has led to significant pedagogical changes due to the shift of instructional medium from the local language to English, which requires content teachers to adapt their pedagogical approaches to ensure effective content learning. Also, this (shift) requires English Language Teaching (ELT) practitioners to switch from teaching general English to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) to ensure students' academic success in EMI contexts. Since EAP is more demanding, this switch calls for increased professional development (PD). However, current literature reveals that EAP teachers' PD in EMI contexts is vastly understudied compared to that of content teachers. This study responds to the growing need of exploring EAP teachers' PD and their views on PD opportunities in a surging EMI context – China, where EAP teachers are increasingly indispensable for providing much-needed academic support for students. Document analysis of PD-related documents and interviews with EAP teachers (n = 20) and PD leads (n = 5) across different types of EMI provisions (EMI university, EMI college, and EMI programme) reveal that PD specifically for EAP teachers is currently lacking, possibly owing to lack of awareness and support at the institutional level. The study concludes with practical implications for the refinement of EAP teachers’ PD and advocates for fairer PD investments across teaching cohorts
Illness trajectory in the longer term after hospitalisation for COVID-19: a prospective, multicentre cohort study
Get PDFBackground:
There are few data on the longer-term illness trajectory of patients following hospitalisation for COVID-19.
Methods:
We prospectively enrolled 267 adults hospitalised for COVID-19. Longer-term follow up was available for 260 participants. Event rates for death or unplanned hospitalisation were calculated using a Poisson model. Univariate and multivariable analyses identified baseline predictors, with a backward selection process for the best fitting model.
Results:
The mean age of COVID-19 participants was 54.9±12.1 years, and 41% were female. During median follow-up of 1028 days (IQR:1000,1085), 112 individuals (43.1%) had at least one event including 6 deaths (2.3%). There were 252 events in total. The first event rate was 18.9 per 100 person-years (95%CI: 15.7, 22.8). Multivariable predictors included healthcare worker status (HR 0.59, 95%CI: 0.34, 1.02, p=0.046), Charlson Comorbidity Index (HR 1.13, 95%CI: 1.02, 1.24, p=0.020), current smoking (HR 2.49, 95%CI: 1.21, 5.11, p=0.010), and haemoglobin (HR 0.93, 95%CI: 0.88, 0.99, p=0.020). The WHO Clinical Severity Score was not a significant predictor (p=0.187).
Conclusion:
Comorbidity, current smoking status and haemoglobin predict illness trajectory following hospitalisation for COVID-19, rather than illness severity during hospitalisation. Further research is needed to explore interventions targeting these factors to improve prognosis.
Trial registration:
CISCO-19; http://NCT04403607. Registration date; 23/05/202
Nursing History in the Curriculum – Strengthening the Future Through Learning from the Past
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Re-creating historic modern hand knitting: working with a Community of Practice
No full textThis article explores the benefits of academic collaboration with the community of practice. It employs experimental history methodology, a collaboration between historians, curators and volunteer knitters, in order to gain knowledge about design and making practices in two examples of historic hand knitting from the modern period. The first project investigated nineteenth-century printed knitting patterns purporting to be Shetland lace. The second focused on the ready-to-wear garments designed between the 1960s and 1990s by Margaret Klein for the Bernat Klein label. This approach to research, utilizing the knowledge and skills of the knitting community, brings benefits to all parties in the form of specialized research insights with wider application for researchers, curators and practitioners. It goes some way toward reclaiming a craft with domestic connotations, inserting it in conversations about cultural heritage as well as the economic value of women’s expertise
Spatial imbalance of innate-like T-cell niches underlies clinical trajectories in psoriasis
Get PDFInnate-like T cells (iLTCs) are rapid sentinels at epithelial surfaces, yet their spatial organisation and tissue-linked programmes in psoriatic inflammation remain incompletely defined. Spatial transcriptomics from independent cohorts maps γδT and mucosal-associated invariant T cells (MAIT) niches across psoriatic skin and reveals sharply divergent skin-layer arrangements. Psoriatic plaques show expansion of both niches, with γδT transcriptional signatures present in dermis and epidermis and MAIT signatures strongly enriched in the epidermis. Their compartment-specific positioning is mirrored by distinct transcriptional activities that support dermal-sentinel behaviour for γδT-enriched niches and epithelialretention programmes for MAIT niches. Clinical severity associates with opposite niche dynamics, marked by decreasing dermal γδT frequencies and increasing epidermal MAIT abundance. Functional profiles reinforce this divergence, as dermal γδT niches display rising exhaustion-associated features with greater severity, whereas epidermal MAIT niches show stronger inflammatory and proliferation-related signals. Peripheral CITE-seq prof iling identifies parallel systemic patterns, with reduced γδT frequencies and increased MAIT frequencies in blood, along with exhaustion-associated features in γδT cells and MAIT-specific trafficking cues that align with their behaviour in psoriatic tissue. Together the findings define a spatially imbalanced γδT–MAIT axis in psoriatic inflammation that is linked to layer-specific organisation to local inflammatory cues, systemic immune engagement and clinical severity
Native trees are related to advanced bird breeding phenology and increased reproductive success along an urban gradient
Get PDFUrban areas are altered from natural landscapes in several ways that can
impact wildlife. Birds are widespread in urban areas, and it is well documented
that there are phenotypic differences between urban and non-urban conspecifics. However, little is known about which characteristics of the urban environment are driving differences. We used 9 years of data from nest boxes
spread across 20 sites along a 40-km urban–non-urban gradient in Scotland to
test whether characteristics of the urban environment (native, non-native,
native oak (Quercus spp.), birch (Betula spp.) foliage availability, temperature
and human population density, and the interaction between foliage and temperature) influenced phenology and reproductive success in blue tits
(Cyanistes caeruleus). We found that higher foliage availability of native
foliage, and specifically of the most common native genus, oak, was associated
at the territory level with earlier first egg laying date. Higher non-native foliage
availability at both a site and territory level was negatively related to clutch
size. The number of fledglings produced was reduced at sites with higher levels
of non-native foliage and increased at sites with greater amounts of native oak
foliage present. We also found territories with a higher human population density had reduced fledging success. Temperature was negatively related to first
egg laying date, clutch size and the number of fledglings produced. Moreover,
the number of Lepidopteran larvae, blue tits’ preferred prey, that were collected over the breeding season was positively related to native oak foliage
availability. Our results strongly indicate that the presence of native trees, such
as oak, are beneficial to breeding insectivores by increasing the number of
fledglings they can successfully raise, likely due to the increased availability of
invertebrate prey. We suggest that urban planting regimes should be carefully
considered, selecting tree species that are native or non-native congeneric species, and most importantly that will host Lepidoptera larvae. This will not only help to support complete food chains, but also to maximize biodiversity and
ecosystem services of urban green spaces
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