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Peptide nutrient-energy dense enteral feeding in critically ill infants: an observational study
No full textBackground: Enteral feeding is challenging in critically ill infants. Target intakes are often not achieved as a result of fluid restriction, procedural interruptions and perceived enteral feeding intolerance. In those infants perceived to have poor feeding tolerance, the use of a peptide nutrient-energy dense enteral feed (PEF) may improve nutritional intake and minimise feeding interruptions as a result of gastrointestinal symptoms. The aim of this observational study was to characterise the use of a PEF amongst critically ill infants in two paediatric intensive care units (PICUs). Methods: Records from critically ill infants aged <12 months admitted to two PICUs were retrospectively reviewed with a PICU length of stay (LOS) ≥ 7 days. Achievement of nutritional targets for the duration of PEF was reviewed. Gastrointestinal symptoms, including gastric residual volume, constipation and vomiting, were evaluated as tolerance parameters. Results: In total, 53 infants were included, with a median age on admission of 2.6 months. Median admission weight was 3.9 kg in PICU-1 and 4.7 kg in PICU-2. Median (interquatile range) energy intake in PICU-1 and PICU-2 was 68 (47-92) and 90 (63-124) kcal kg-1 , respectively, and median (interquatile range) protein intake 1.7 (1.1-2.4) g kg-1 and 2.5 (1.6-3.2) g kg-1 , respectively. Feeding was withheld because of feeding intolerance in one infant (4%) on two occasions in PICU-1 for 2.5 h and in two infants (7%) on two occasions in PICU-2 for 19.5 h. Gastric residual mean (SD) volumes were 3.5 (5.4) mL kg-1 in PICU-1 and 16.9 (15.6) mL kg-1 in PICU-2. Conclusions: Peptide nutrient-energy dense feeding in infants admitted to the PICU is feasible, well tolerated and nutritional targets are met. However, with this study design, it is not possible to draw any conclusions regarding the benefit of PEF over standard PE feed in critically ill children and future work is required to clarify this further
Democracy and Education
No full textMuch has been written, critiquing the impact of neoliberal politics on education. Such critique is often accompanied by calls for a return to, or a renewal of, democracy in society, coupled with an advocacy of democratic education. Such calls, complex and problematic in themselves, are further complicated by the recent rise of populism and the growth of popular forms of extremism – arguably the fruits of a certain democracy. But these calls also raise questions about what we mean by democracy in the 21st century. How should we understand this highly charged, yet constitutionally complex, term? What is the nature of the relationship between forms of politics in wider society and education? Does democratic education require its subjects to submit to particular ‘democratic’ dispositions, and, if so, how might this be reconciled with the tensions and contradictions inhering in democracy between, for example, freedom and equality or between the demos and the necessary Other against whom it defines itself? Can some form of democratic education be compatible with expertise and authority or do the latter necessarily cause democratic education to implode, in practice, if not in theory? And what has democracy in the past and present, and what might it have in the future, to do with education, for better or worse?This special issue engages critically and creatively with these fundamentally important social, political and educational issues, at a time when contemporary democracies are increasingly fraught and fragmented. Specifically, the papers in this special issue explore whether, and if so how, democracy could provide a template for rethinking and reworking the discourses, practices and organisational forms of education. Or is the question of democracy and education merely an irrelevance, a ‘hangover’ from a past century that has outlived any current purpose or future significance? And if so, what, if anything, should take its place?Mendel analyses the spatial dimensions of democracy in a way that draws attention to the educational value of democratic commonality in order to advocate a pedagogy of ‘common places’. In an exploratory paper, Phelan and Rüsselbæk Hansen argue for the need to rethink the crisis in our democracy, within and beyond education, “by engaging students’ aesthetic sensibilities in multiple ways, playful schools both produce and provoke the dominant social order thereby fostering students’ taste for democracy”. Belas examines the curious case of English as a subject in English schools, in order to argue that English in England falls short of the standards of ‘powerful knowledge’ and of a democratic education conceived as social justice. Heggart and Flowers suggest that education needs to identify and define new models of citizenship education that focus, not only on strengthening capacity for active and participatory citizenship, but that also enhance students’ capacity for critical political analysis. Gamsjäger’s paper examines how depoliticised rhetoric of participation has the effect of imparting inadequate democratic competencies, including insufficient consideration of students’ perspectives, in ways that ultimately foreclose long-term possibilities for the redistribution of rights of disposal of social and economic goods. Finally, Nielsen asks whether radical student activism can be used as a ‘democratic’ means of disrupting and reshaping existing orders
Spreading Tourists around Host Countries of Mega Sport Events: a Strategy to Overcome Over-tourism in Host Cities
Get PDFPurpose: This study aims to recommend initiatives that can be adopted to overcome overtourism in host destinations of mega sport events. Design/methodology/approach: This study adopts a qualitative research design that involves 20 semi-structured interviews with key informant stakeholders of the London 2012 Olympic Games. An exploratory case study approach was used to investigate strategies used to leverage tourism benefits in host destinations, and the authors used thematic analysis to present strategies to overcome overtourism in host cities. Findings: This study emphasises the need for spreading tourists beyond the host city as a main strategy. To do so, three initiatives are recommended: spreading domestic tourism outside the host city, showcasing destination beyond the host city and promoting regional collaboration. Practical implications: This research provides tourism practitioners and destination management organisations in host destinations of mega sport events with an advanced strategic insights to capitalise on mega sport events. The authors suggest considering the events as a theme through an event planning process to overcome potential overtourism in unique host cities. Originality/value: As overtourism has an impact on visited destinations, this study argues that overtourism can be generated by mega sport events. This paper offers an extended insight into overcoming overtourism by implementing strategic event tourism, leveraging initiatives that can be extended in use to reach geographic areas beyond host cities of mega sport events.</p
Seeing Education on Film: A Conceptual Aesthetics
No full textThis book argues that films have more to offer by way of conceptualising education than textual scholarship. It considers the inadequacies of trying to define education in any absolute or metaphysical sense, favouring instead explorations of how the concept comes to feature meaningfully in our language through the relationship between the verbal and the visual, word and world. Drawing on the work of the later Wittgenstein, it suggests that a shift in our philosophical focus from knowing to seeing can allow for the phenomena of our ordinary educational experience (teachers, schools, children) to be appreciated anew. The book argues that cinema is the medium best placed to draw attention to this revaluation of the everyday, and particular films are presented as offering unique insights into the aesthetic nature of the educational concept. The book will be of primary interest to educators and educationalists alike, but its interdisciplinary nature should also appeal to those in the fields of film study, philosophy, and aesthetics
Troubling ‘race’ and discourses of difference and identity in early childhood education in South Africa
Get PDFThis article emerges from a broader ethnographic study exploring how young children aged five and six years, and their educators, construct ‘race’ identities in a culturally diverse early childhood education setting in post-apartheid South Africa. Historically, systems of educational inequality and injustice have had a profound impact on how subjects have come to be ‘raced’ in the South African context. Drawing on a poststructural framework that problematizes the notion of identity, ‘race’, and young children’s discursive understandings of ‘race’, this article traces the complex ways in which young children and educators (re)construct, negotiate, resist and subvert subject formation processes in the school environment. Notions of performativity and embodiment provide important analytical tools through which ethnographic data is analysed. Such a framework moves discussion regarding young children and identity beyond more conventional psychological theories that postulate that the self emerges from intrapsychic processes or, at best, is shaped within very limited caregiver and familial contexts, thus avoiding the ‘complexity of human subjectivity’ (O’Loughlin 2001, 57). Dominant narratives about diversity and difference circulating in a formerly ‘white’ primary school with a commitment to transformation and diversity are interrogated. The frequent struggles with discourses of ‘race’, power and privilege that emerge in the lived experiences of both young children and educators points to the ways in which discursive positioning frame subject formation processes. It is argues that educators need to closely interrogate their own ‘race’ positioning(s) and simultaneously make visible the notion that children, like adults, are social agents who are as affected by political, economic, social and cultural forces
What’s new from the zoo? An analysis of ten years of zoo-themed research output
No full textThe modern zoo’s roles command empirical enquiry to determine the effectiveness of zoos locally and globally. Ten years ago, published work identified the need for empirical research on a diverse range of species beyond charismatic zoo megafauna. We review zoo-based research published in the decade since this original recommendation. We collectively evaluate zoo-themed research papers from those working in zoos and those external to zoos but studying zoo-housed animals. By systematically searching Web of Science© for zoo-based research and performing inductive content analysis to code year, journal, study animal’s taxonomic classification, and research aims and outputs we evaluate trends in zoo-themed research, contrasted with trends in species holding. Significantly more birds and fish are kept compared to mammals, reptiles and amphibians, but mammals are consistently the primary research focus. Whilst output generally rises, only for birds is a steady increase in publications apparent. Husbandry evaluation is a major aim/output, but papers on pure biology, cognition and health also feature. Most publications lead to “specific advancement of knowledge” including validation of methodologies. We show that: (1) trends in species holdings are unrelated to trends in publication; (2) zoo-themed research makes meaningful contributions to science; (3) zoo researchers should diversify their aim/output categories and chosen study species to close the persisting research gaps that we have identified. Finally, we discuss our findings in the context of evident species biases within research outputs across the broader fields of zoology, conservation and ecology.</p
A Template for Enhancing the Impact of the National Academy of Sciences' Reporting on Forensic Science
No full textThe National Academy of Sciences (NAS), established in 1863, is the United States’ leading science and technology think-tank, with an active commitment to advising government. Over the last 150 years, the NAS has, both independently and in conjunction with the federal government, investigated and reported on various issues of importance, ranging from space exploration and biosecurity, to STEM education and immigration. Due to growing concerns about particular disciplines (and specifically their application in legal proceedings), one issue the NAS has reported on between 1992 and 2009 is forensic science. Specifically, the NAS has published six reports commenting on the status of forensic science evidence in the USA, namely DNA Technology in Forensic Science (1992), The Evaluation of Forensic DNA Evidence (1996), The Polygraph and Lie Detection (2003), Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence (2004), Ballistic Imaging (2008), and Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (2009). The response of stakeholders (including from political, legal, and academic spheres) to these reports has varied, ranging from shifts in practice and full acknowledgement, to considerable struggles to effectuate systemic reform. Using the different experiences of two reports – Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence (2004) and Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward (2009) – as a vehicle, this article suggests how the NAS can strengthen the impact of its forensic science reporting, and how stakeholders can better harness the expertise of the NAS
Supporting young carers: The impact of the Hampshire Young Carers Alliance (HYCA) collaborative approach
Get PDFSummary Building on an initial qualitative study of the impact of dedicated young carer services (Phelps, 2017), this report presents the findings of a follow-up study which used questionnaires and a semi-structured interview to evaluate the impact of the collaborative approach between the Hampshire Young Carers Alliance (HYCA) services (young carer projects). Significance: This report is relevant to the HYCA Alliance specifically but also to other similar collaborations or to services that are considering developing collaborative approaches. The findings are important in that they provide a first overview of the impacts at different levels, of the collaborative approach taken by ten young carer services. The report outlines the positive and negative impacts that the collaborative approach has made and identifies key challenges of the collaboration. Future research is suggested and recommendations are made for developing the collaborative approach to supporting young carers. Headlines•Taken as a whole the collaborative approach of HYCA has been beneficial and has had some positive impacts. •There were also several negative impacts and challenges from the collaborative approach. •The collaboration had impacted at three different levels; 1.Positive and negative impacts on projects. There have been some barriers to the collaborative approach and projects have experienced a range of challenges.2.Positive and negative impacts on young carers and their families.3.Positive impacts for young carers and their families on a locality and county level by influencing and enhancing policy and practice and raising awareness of young carers.•Partners are generally positive about the collaboration’s future and have made suggestions for strengthening the collaborative approach. <br/
Whole child, whole teacher: leadership for flourishing primary schools
Get PDFWhilst the notion of the whole child is well-established within early years and primary education, the related concept of the whole teacher is less well developed. However, it is important to progress understanding of the concept in light of high levels of teacher stress in performance-driven education systems.This paper details an empirical study with five primary schools in England which explored how leaders sustained a focus on the whole child within the context of a performance-driven education system. Specifically, it focuses on data which emerged from the study, identifying the concept of the whole teacher and its important relationship with the whole child and whole curriculum. The paper critiques current conceptions of the whole teacher and proposes a concept which has, at its centre, the recognition of who the teacher is as a person. Implications for leadership and teachers’ education are considered.<br/
Places as Fuzzy Locational Categories
Get PDFThis paper offers a new way of considering places as special types of categories, in human cognition of larger-scale environments. This may provide an explanatory cognitive model for a range of known phenomena from environmental psychology and human geography - notably places' semantic salience and vague, unstable boundaries. Using such a model to apply suitable classification approaches may enhance geographic information (GI) for key public- facing users, such as emergency services and planners. Two empirical studies confirmed that a spatially extended place (e.g., suburban locality or neighborhood) may be stored as a category whose exemplars are memorable individual locations or scenes. Using a questionnaire-based method to partly replicate key findings from the semantic memory literature (Barsalou, 1985; Lynch, Coley and Medin 2000), the studies tested the relevance to such places of known semantic memory phenomena including graded membership, typicality versus ideals, expertise and context effects. The discussion considers the link between semantic and spatial vagueness of places