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This paper details the results of a study that aims to reimagine the professional development offered to Irish secondary school mathematics teachers. This reimagined design will be based on four perspectives, one of which is that of current mathematics teachers in the Irish context. It is this perspective that is the subject of this paper. Through a series of semi-structured interviews and a follow-up national survey, teachers expressed their opinions on what professional development should and shouldn’t entail. These opinions can be grouped into the following themes: the role of the internet in professional development; the provision and sharing of teaching and learning resources; having opportunities to discuss teaching approaches and pedagogy styles with colleagues; engagement with and access to professional development; professional development activities; the facilitator; and the role of professional conversations in teachers’ continued professional development.

This study examines how technology implementation within workplaces impacts job ending among employees. We advance the literature on the labor market consequences of new technologies by focusing on their impact within workplaces where they are implemented, rather than inferring from aggregate labor structural changes. We also address how the impact of technology differs depending on workers education, organizational tenure and age. Using large-scale Dutch matched employer-employee panel data directly measuring technology implementation, we find that technology implementation is associated with an overall decrease in the probability of job ending. In line with the skill biased technological change hypothesis, higher educational attainment is associated with lower probabilities of job ending. Furthermore, we find older workers (around 50+) and workers with longer organizational tenure (around 12+ years) to have a higher probability of job ending when technology is implemented. Finally, we do not find the effects of technology implementation to differ depending on the union density of the industry in which an enterprise operates.

Studying firm-level adjustments is important for understanding the economic effects of workplace automation. So far, emerging firm-level evidence is focused on robotics and the manufacturing sector. In this paper, we document that the adoption of automation technologies extends beyond manufacturing firms. We identify firm-level automation events and show that automating firms experience faster employment and revenue growth than do nonautomating firms. However, around automation events themselves, employment growth slows markedly. Notably, we find that these effects are similar for manufacturing and nonmanufacturing firms, suggesting that an increasing diffusion of automation technology has important consequences for firms and their workers.

This paper uses historical labour market data for Belgium for the period 1846–2011 to illustrate how the employment impacts of the ongoing Digital Revolution after 1980 compare to those of the Second Industrial Revolution before 1980. Our analyses show that the period 1846–1947 was characterized by economy-wide skill-upgrading due to an increase in the demand for skilled relative to unskilled workers because of skill-biased technological change (SBTC). The period 1947–81 is characterized by particularly high labour market turbulence, in part due to a gradual switch from economy-wide skill-upgrading to job polarization. Consequently, the impact of the ongoing Digital Revolution on labour markets after 1980 is not uniquely characterized by exceptionally high labour market turbulence but by the nature of changes in the composition of jobs, namely a process of job polarization. To explain job polarization, the paper discusses the hypothesis of Routine-Biased Technological Change (RBTC) that has recently emerged in the academic literature.

We show that tightness in markets for jobs for which an unemployed job seeker fully qualifies in terms of her task competencies is predictive of her unemployment duration. This suggests that the labour market is organized along jobs and their task content. We also find that unemployed job seekers do not compete in markets where they possess only part of the required task competencies, suggesting that task overlap across jobs is unimportant for worker mobility between job markets. This implies that adverse task-biased shocks are likely to have pronounced distributional consequences across workers with different task competencies. To illustrate this, we quantify the impact of technological progress that automates routine tasks, showing that this imposes substantial adjustment costs that are highly unevenly distributed across unemployed job seekers with routine versus non-routine task competencies.

This study examines how technology implementation within enterprises impacts the education and age composition of workforces, enterprise entrants and enterprise leavers. We advance the literature on the labor market consequences of technological change by focusing on the impact within workplaces where it is implemented, rather than making inferences from aggregate labor structural changes. We use large-scale Dutch matched employer–employee panel data to directly measure technology implementation within over 37,000 enterprises during the period 2000–2014. We find that the implementation of technology is associated with a decrease in the proportion of lower educated workers in enterprise workforces, and an increase in the proportion of middle educated workers. Interestingly, we find the proportion of workers aged 50+ increases with the implementation of technology, while the proportion of workers aged below 30 decreases. These changes seem to result from changes in the educational and age composition of enterprise entrants, rather than from changes in enterprise leavers.

Hintergrund: Seit Änderung der ÄAppO im Jahr 2012 ist die Gesprächsführung offiziell Gegenstand der ärztlichen Ausbildung. Entsprechende Lernziele werden in Freiburg bisher vor allem in den P-Fächern vermittelt. Im 1. Studienabschnitt sowie zu Beginn des 2. Abschnitts haben[zum vollständigen Text gelangen Sie über die oben angegebene URL], Gemeinsame Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Medizinische Ausbildung (GMA) und des Arbeitskreises zur Weiterentwicklung der Lehre in der Zahnmedizin (AKWLZ)

© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. Proportional reasoning, the ability to use ratios in situations involving comparison of quantities, is essential for mathematical competence, especially in the middle school years, and is an important determinant of success beyond school. Research shows students find proportional reasoning and its foundational concepts difficult. Proportional reasoning does not always develop naturally, however some research suggests that with targeted teaching, its development can be promoted. This paper reports on a large Australian study involving over 130 teachers and their students. A major goal of the study was to investigate the efficacy of ongoing teacher professional development for promoting middle years students’ proportional reasoning. A series of professional development workshops was designed to enhance the teachers’ understanding of proportional reasoning and to extend their repertoire of teaching strategies to promote their students’ proportional reasoning skills. The workshop design was informed by research literature on proportional reasoning teaching and learning as well as the results of a diagnostic instrument administered to over 2500 middle years students prior to the professional development. Between workshops, the teachers implemented a variety of targeted teaching activities. This paper reports on pre- and post- instrument student data collected at the beginning and end of the first year of the project (i.e., after completion of half of the workshops). The findings suggest that targeted professional development and explicit teaching can make a difference to students’ proportional reasoning.

Irreversible electroporation causes cell death through low frequency, high voltage electrical pulses and is increasingly used to treat non-resectable cancers. A recent systematic review revealed that tissue damage through irreversible electroporation is time-dependent, but the impact of time on the ablation zone size remains unknown. Irreversible electroporation ablations were performed hourly during 24 consecutive hours in the peripheral liver of 2 anaesthetized domestic pigs using clinical treatment settings. Immediately after the 24th ablation, the livers were harvested and examined for tissue response in time based on macroscopic and microscopic pathology. The impact of time on these outcomes was assessed with Spearman rank correlation test. Ablation zones were sharply demarcated as early as 1 hour after treatment. During 24 hours, the ablation zones showed a significant increase in diameter (rs = 0.493, P = .014) and total surface (rs = 0.499, P = .013), whereas the impact of time on the homogeneous ablated area was not significant (rs = 0.172, P = .421). Therefore, the increase in size could mainly be attributed to an increase in the transition zone. Microscopically, the ablation zones showed progression in cell death and inflammation. This study assessed the dynamics of irreversible electroporation on the porcine liver during 24 consecutive hours and found that the pathological response (ie, cell death/inflammation), and ablation size continue to develop for at least 24 hours. Consequently, future studies on irreversible electroporation should prolong their observation period.

Proportional reasoning involves the use of ratios in the comparison of quantities. While it is a key aspect of numeracy, particularly in the middle years of schooling, students do not always develop proportional reasoning naturally. Research suggests that many students do not apply proportional methods appropriately and that they often erroneously apply both multiplicative and additive thinking. Further, students cannot always distinguish non-proportional situations from those that are proportional. Understanding the situations in which students mistakenly use additive or multiplicative thinking and the nature of the proportional reasoning that students apply to different problem types is important for teachers seeking to support their students to develop proportional reasoning in the classroom. This paper describes the development and use of a two-tier diagnostic instrument to identify situations in which students could and could not apply proportional reasoning and the types of reasoning they used. It presents data from an Australian study involving over 2000 middle-years students (Years 5 to 9) as a means of illustrating the use of the instrument for diagnosing students' reasoning in different situations. The findings showed that the instrument was useful for identifying problem types in which students of different ages were able to apply correct reasoning. It also allowed identification of the types of incorrect reasoning used by students. The paper also describes useful applications of the instrument, including its use as a diagnostic instrument by classroom teachers and its use in the design of classroom activities included in teacher professional learning workshops. © 2013 Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Inc.

The utility of current chemotherapeutic regimens in the treatment of AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma (AIDS-KS) is often compromised by both limited efficacy and substantial toxicity. Pegylated (Stealth) liposomal doxorubicin hydrochloride (SL-DOX) has been demonstrated specifically to deliver high concentrations of doxorubicin to Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) lesions. This phase II study was performed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of SL-DOX in the treatment of moderate to severe AIDS-KS. Patients were treated biweekly with 10, 20, or 40 mg m-2 SL-DOX. Tumour response was assessed according to AIDS Clinical Trials Groups (ACTG) criteria before each cycle. Best response was determined for 238 patients and was achieved after a mean of 2.3 cycles (range 1-20). Fifteen patients (6.3%) had a complete response to SL-DOX, 177 (74.4%) had a partial response, 44 (18.5%) had stable disease and two (0.8%) had disease progression. SL-DOX was well tolerated: ten patients discontinued therapy because of adverse events, in four cases because of neutropenia. Grade 3 or 4 neutropenia occurred after 281 of 2023 cycles (13.9%) but involved 137 of 240 patients (57.1%) for whom data were available. SL-DOX has substantial activity in AIDS-KS. Best response is typically seen after fewer than three cycles of chemotherapy and in some cases may be prolonged. The most important adverse event is neutropenia, which occurs after a minority of cycles but which may occur in over half of all patients.

Animal models are extensively used for transplantation related research, especially kidney transplantation. Porcine autotransplantation models are considered to be favorable regarding translatability to the human setting. The key determinants for translatability of the model are discussed, comprising animal age, development, anatomy, anesthesia and surgical protocols, and perioperative care. With the detailed discussion of these determinants and the pitfalls in diagnosing animal discomfort, an attempt is made to provide a uniform porcine kidney autotransplantation model with tools to improve currently used models.

Einleitung: Als Ursachen erworbener Sphinkterschäden stehen vaginale Entbindungen, operative Eingriffe und Unfallfolgen an vorderster Stelle. Die anteriore Sphinkterplikatur ist eine operative Möglichkeit, die resultierende Stuhlinkontinenz zu behandeln. Die Studie befasst sich mit 48 Patienten,[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 127. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

Einleitung: Stuhlinkontinenz ist ein bedeutender Krankheitsfaktor. Die Ursachen für Stuhlinkontinenz sind in morphologischen Veränderung des Beckenbodens und der Sphinktermuskulatur zu suchen (Traumata, Operationen Vaginale Entbindung etc.). Auch Angeborene oder erworbene neurologische Störungen[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 126. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

Einleitung: Advancement-Flap (Lewis & Bartolo 1990; Ortiz & Marzo 2000) zum Verschluss analer Fistelleiden gilt als Therapie der Wahl zur Behandlung von transsphinkteren Fisteln. Rezidivraten werden im Schrifttum zwischen 20–50 % angegeben (vgl. Sonoda 2002). Material und Methoden:[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 126. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie