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To explore the views of parents and carers regarding the management of acute otitis media in urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who are at low risk of complications living in urban communities. Qualitative study; semi‐structured interviews and short telephone survey. Interviews: purposive sample of parents and carers of urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children (18 months – 16 years old) screened in Aboriginal medical services in Queensland, New South Wales, and Canberra for the WATCH study, a randomised controlled trial that compared immediate antibiotic therapy with watchful waiting for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with acute otitis media. Survey: parents and carers recruited for the WATCH trial who had completed week two WATCH surveys. We interviewed twenty‐two parents and carers, including ten who had declined participation in or whose children were ineligible for the WATCH trial. Some interviewees preferred antibiotics for managing acute otitis media, others preferred watchful waiting, expressing concerns about side effects and reduced efficacy with overuse of antibiotics. Factors that influenced this preference included the severity, duration, and recurrence of infection, and knowledge about management gained during the trial and from personal and often multigenerational experience of ear disease. Participants highlighted the importance of shared decision making by parents and carers and their doctors. Parents and carers of 165 of 262 WATCH participants completed telephone surveys (63%); 81 were undecided about whether antibiotics should always be used for treating acute otitis media. Open‐ended responses indicated that antibiotic use should be determined by clinical need, support for general practitioners’ decisions, and the view that some general practitioners prescribed antibiotics too often. Parents and carers are key partners in managing acute otitis media in urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Our findings support shared decision making informed by the experience of parents and carers, which could also lead to reduced antibiotic use for managing acute otitis media.

What professional information should you share and seek online? Check out these pointers. If you need suggestions or guidance for treatment recommendations, or want information about a treatment methodology, where [...]

ABSTRACTThis phenomenological study extends the current research on working mothers to teacher mothers. Themes highlighted include work/life enrichment, support for motherhood role, challenge to find balance, challenging cultural norms, financial challenges, and strategies for managing multiple roles. Findings reveal and highlight challenges and opportunities that exist at the intersection of the field of education and motherhood. Also provided are suggestions for advocacy efforts for norms and policies that support teacher mothers. Implications of this work are particularly relevant in the contemporary era, wherein the roles of motherhood and teacher are intensified by the shift to online learningas a result of the pandemic.

I am writing regarding 'Spotlight on Pseudoscience: Nonspeech Oral Motor Exercises' in 'Does Truth Have a Future?' (July 2019, on.asha.org/ 0719-truth). Nonspeech oral motor exercises (NSOME) is a term created [...]

Your waiting area for clients and parents can sometimes seem like a Wild West of noise, germs and scattered toys. Here are some tips for taming it If you work [...]

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events occurring in the household or community that hold painful or distressing outcomes for children immediately and in their future (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). School counselors work with children and young adolescents suffering from negative mental health outcomes as a result of ACEs (Hunt et al., 2017; Jimenez et al., 2016; Kaess et al., 2013; Kerker et al., 2015; Koball et al., 2021; Zhang & Mersky, 2020). Further, school counselors often work with minoritized populations, who are at a greater risk for racialized trauma (Cronholm et al., 2015; Merrick et al., 2018; Thurston et al., 2018). Research has not identified the extent to which school counselors are aware of ACEs and use that knowledge to inform their practice. This study fills a gap in the literature by investigating how school counselors understand and address ACEs, using a descriptive phenomenological approach. We identified three themes and various subthemes from the data and offer discussion and implications of the research for school counselors and counselor educators.

As historians, archaeologists, and database analysts affiliated with the Database of Religious History (DRH; religiondatabase.org), we share with the Seshat: Global History Databank team, authors of a recent study published in Nature, an excitement about the potential for deep and sustained collaborations between historians and analysts to answer big questions about human history. We have serious concerns, however, by the approach to the quantitative coding of historical data taken by the Seshat team, as revealed in the backing data (seshatdatabank.info/nature), as well as by a lack of clarity concerning the degree of involvement of expert historians in the coding process. The apparent lack of appreciation for historical scholarship that this coding strategy displays runs the risk of permanently alienating the community of academic historians, who are essential future collaborators in any project devoted to large-scale historical data analysis. In the present commentary, we present a preliminary critical review of their latest article, “Complex Societies Precede Moralizing Gods Throughout World History” (2019).

Clear policies--and sometimes penalties--will help reduce last-minute cancellations and improve your bottom line. Here are some suggestions. If you are working in a school system or hospital, a student absence [...]

The article reports on the origins of the Gospels. It mentions The Gospels should be viewed as writings not outside literate culture but at its center in the first centuries C.E., the Jesus of the Gospels can be fruitfully compared with the Cynics, Aesop, the pastoral heroes of the Greek novel, or witty underdogs in the biographical tradition.

School counselors across the United States are implementing comprehensive school counseling programs, such as those following the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model. ASCA awards a designation honoring exemplary school counseling programs: Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP). Although a growing number of studies have examined RAMP status through survey methods and student outcomes, the need remains to understand RAMP through the lens of each school’s unique context and experience. We present a multilevel, qualitative, participatory, descriptive case study to examine a school counseling cohort preparing over a 2-year period to apply for RAMP, utilizing a district–university partnership. Given the expansive data gleaned from the present study, the results are reported in two articles; this is the first of a two-part study. Results highlight this RAMP cohort process, including the following themes: (a) the push and pull of deciding to participate, (b) collaborative supports, (c) facilitators’ integral and complex role, and (d) next steps.

Although comprehensive school counseling programs are implemented widely across the country, school counselors face myriad barriers to implementation. As such, we conducted a multilevel, descriptive case study to examine a school counseling cohort preparing to apply for the American School Counselor Association’s Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) over a 2-year period. Due to the significant amount of data collected during the research process, this is the second article of a two-part study. Results of this study highlight the process of school counselors overcoming barriers to comprehensive program implementation via prolonged professional development and include the following themes: (a) overcoming a lack of training and knowledge on comprehensive school counseling programs and (b) advocating to overcome systemic barriers. We address considerations for counselor educators, school counseling professionals, and counseling organizations/associations.

Abstract:  The present study investigates the actions of robustoxin (atracotoxin-Ar1) purified from the venom of the male Sydney funnel-web spider Atrax robustus on sodium channel gating. Using whole-cell patch-clamp techniques the study assessed the actions of robustoxin on tetrodotoxin-resistant (TTX-R) and tetrodotoxin-sensitive (TTX-S) sodium currents in rat dorsal root ganglion cells. Similar to the closely related funnel-web spider toxin versutoxin (δ-atracotoxin-Hv1) from Hadronyche versuta, robustoxin had no effect on TTX-R sodium currents but exerted potent effects on TTX-S sodium currents. The main action of robustoxin was a concentration-dependent slowing or removal of TTX-S sodium current inactivation. This steady-state current was maintained during long-lasting depolarisations at all test potentials. Robustoxin (30 nM) also caused a 13-mV hyperpolarising shift in the voltage midpoint of steady-state sodium channel inactivation (h ∞) leading to a reduced peak current at a holding potential of –80 mV. Moreover there was a steady-state or non-inactivating component present (18% of maximal sodium current) at prepulse potentials that normally inactivate all TTX-S sodium channels (more depolarised than –40 mV). In addition robustoxin produced a significant increase in the repriming kinetics of the sodium channel when channels returned to the resting state following activation. This increase in the rate of recovery of sodium current appears to explain the use-dependent effects on peak sodium current amplitude at high stimulation frequencies. Finally 30 nM robustoxin caused an 11-mV hyperpolarising shift in the voltage dependence of the channel but did not markedly modify tail current kinetics. These actions suggest that robustoxin inhibits conversion of the open state to the inactivated state of TTX-S sodium channels, thus allowing a fraction of the sodium current to remain at membrane potentials at which inactivation is normally complete. Given the recent reclassification of funnel-web spider toxins as atracotoxins, robustoxin should henceforth be known as δ-atracotoxin-Ar1 to reflect this main action on sodium channel inactivation. These present results further support the hypothesis that funnel-web spider toxins interact with neurotoxin receptor site 3 to slow channel inactivation in a manner similar to that of α-scorpion and sea anemone toxins.

Researchers have identified some of the benefits and challenges working mothers experience. This phenomenological study extends this line of research to school counselor mothers. Themes highlighted include benefits of combining school counselor and motherhood roles, instances of role incompatibility, and strategies for managing multiple roles. We also provide suggestions for advocacy efforts to further support working mothers and to address the challenges specific to school counselor mothers.

Limited research has explored the experiences of school counseling directors, defined in this study as school counselors who are the designated department leaders and school counseling supervisors at middle or high schools. In this phenomenological study, we sought to better understand the experiences of those directors, specifically in relation to leadership and job satisfaction. Four themes emerged from the data collected from the 10 participants. We discuss these themes and offer implications for training, support, and role clarification for school counseling directors.

Several letters to the editor are presented in response to articles in previous issues including an article about weddings in the Summer 2008-2009 issue, another about the Ngāi Tahu Holdings Group and "Just Like Mark James," in the December 2008 issue.