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Child observation is a critical component of quality pedagogy in early childhood education and care (ECEC). The ORICL (Observe, Reflect, Improve Children's Learning) tool was co-designed by ECEC researchers, policymakers, leaders, and practitioners to support this work. Educators rate the experiences of individual children, and responses of educators and peers on 118 items across five domains. In this study of the utility of ORICL, the tool was used by 21 educators across 12 ECEC services for a total of 66 children. Descriptive statistical analyses were used to determine how educators used the full range of the ORICL rating scale, and the psychometric properties of the tool were explored. Findings suggest that the ORICL items can be readily observed and rated by educators for children aged under 3 years, the rating scale is appropriate, and there is early evidence to support the domain structure of the tool.

Objectives The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on doctors is a significant concern. Due to the emergence of multiple pandemic waves, longitudinal data on the impact of COVID-19 are vital to ensure an adequate psychological care response. The primary aim was to assess the prevalence and degree of psychological distress and trauma in frontline doctors during the acceleration, peak and deceleration of the COVID-19 first wave. Personal and professional factors associated with psychological distress are also reported.Design A prospective online three-part longitudinal survey.Setting Acute hospitals in the UK and Ireland.Participants Frontline doctors working in emergency medicine, anaesthetics and intensive care medicine during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.Primary outcome measures Psychological distress and trauma measured using the General Health Questionnaire-12 and the Impact of Events-Revised.Results The initial acceleration survey distributed across networks generated a sample of 5440 doctors. Peak and deceleration response rates from the original sample were 71.6% (n=3896) and 56.6% (n=3079), respectively. Prevalence of psychological distress was 44.7% (n=1334) during the acceleration, 36.9% (n=1098) at peak and 31.5% (n=918) at the deceleration phase. The prevalence of trauma was 23.7% (n=647) at peak and 17.7% (n=484) at deceleration. The prevalence of probable post-traumatic stress disorder was 12.6% (n=343) at peak and 10.1% (n=276) at deceleration. Worry of family infection due to clinical work was the factor most strongly associated with both distress (R2=0.06) and trauma (R2=0.10).Conclusion Findings reflect a pattern of elevated distress at acceleration and peak, with some natural recovery. It is essential that policymakers seek to prevent future adverse effects through (a) provision of vital equipment to mitigate physical and psychological harm, (b) increased awareness and recognition of signs of psychological distress and (c) the development of clear pathways to effective psychological care.Trial registration number ISRCTN10666798.

Objectives To determine the need for recovery (NFR) among emergency physicians and to identify demographic and occupational characteristics associated with higher NFR scores.Design Cross-sectional electronic survey.Setting Emergency departments (EDs) (n=112) in the UK and Ireland.Participants Emergency physicians, defined as any registered physician working principally within the ED, responding between June and July 2019.Main outcome measure NFR Scale, an 11-item self-administered questionnaire that assesses how work demands affect intershift recovery.Results The median NFR Score for all 4247 eligible, consented participants with a valid NFR Score was 70.0 (95% CI: 65.5 to 74.5), with an IQR of 45.5–90.0. A linear regression model indicated statistically significant associations between gender, health conditions, type of ED, clinical grade, access to annual and study leave, and time spent working out-of-hours. Groups including male physicians, consultants, general practitioners (GPs) within the ED, those working in paediatric EDs and those with no long-term health condition or disability had a lower NFR Score. After adjusting for these characteristics, the NFR Score increased by 3.7 (95% CI: 0.3 to 7.1) and 6.43 (95% CI: 2.0 to 10.8) for those with difficulty accessing annual and study leave, respectively. Increased percentage of out-of-hours work increased NFR Score almost linearly: 26%–50% out-of-hours work=5.7 (95% CI: 3.1 to 8.4); 51%–75% out-of-hours work=10.3 (95% CI: 7.6 to 13.0); 76%–100% out-of-hours work=14.5 (95% CI: 11.0 to 17.9).Conclusion Higher NFR scores were observed among emergency physicians than reported in any other profession or population to date. While out-of-hours working is unavoidable, the linear relationship observed suggests that any reduction may result in NFR improvement. Evidence-based strategies to improve well-being such as proportional out-of-hours working and improved access to annual and study leave should be carefully considered and implemented where feasible.

School rezoning is the process of drawing and redrawing school attendance boundaries (SABs). However, studies explicitly focused on changing SABs through rezoning or other mechanisms are spread across multiple bodies of literature. Rezoning is also a politically contentious issue governed by local school boards, tying it to conceptual work on the politics of education. This systematic literature review on school rezoning brings together fragmented but related bodies of work to develop a comprehensive understanding of the rationales for school rezoning, the strategies and processes underlying it, and its associated outcomes. Grounded in a contested legal landscape, findings indicate that rezoning involves overlapping and interacting policy issues as well as multiple stakeholders that complicate the theory of action. Limitations in prevailing student assignment plans influence the degree to which rezoning can disrupt racial and socioeconomic segregation in schools. This review highlights the need to reconceptualize rezoning as a transformative tool, rather than one that replicates (or worsens) systems of educational inequity.

This paper provides a theory-based introduction to instructional design that can be used in pedagogy seminars, training sessions, professional development events, colloquiums, and/or programmatic guidebooks. It includes a series of activities designed to assist instructors in the classes they teach. The exercises combine theory with practice to fortify classroom instruction and promote student learning outcomes, while also encouraging a greater appreciation for the significance and value that education has in students' lives. Courses: Pedagogy seminars, educational theory courses, and introduction to graduate studies. The exercise can be used in traditional classroom settings, workshops, training sessions, and/or instructional handbooks. Pedagogy seminars, educational theory courses, and introduction to graduate studies. The exercise can be used in traditional classroom settings, workshops, training sessions, and/or instructional handbooks. Objectives: Participants/educators will develop a theory-based instructional approach by: (a) examining their own educational history, (b) learning about various educational theories, and (c) applying this information to the course(s) they teach. These objectives will be demonstrated by participation in various discussions and by writing three papers. The first paper will record participants' recollections of their own educational experiences. The second paper will allow participants to identify, detail, compare, and contrast different theoretical approaches to teaching and learning. The third paper will include a lengthier response that applies a theoretically grounded approach to utilize in the course(s) they teach.

Self-regulation is arguably one of the most crucial predictors of school readiness, academic achievement, and lifelong well-being. While educators in the prior-to-school years have a pivotal role to play in stimulating growth in early self-regulation, less is known about their knowledge and practices in this area. This interview study was conducted with 71 kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong. Content analysis and descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the transcripts. We found that participants: (1) had a limited and superficial understanding of the notion of self-regulation; (2) estimated that approximately one quarter of their students displayed self-regulation problems; (3) had difficulties articulating what constitutes indicators for self-regulation problems in young children; and (4) lacked intervention strategies to strengthen children's self-regulation, specifically preventive strategies. Educational policymakers, researchers, curriculum designers, teacher educators and school leaders are urged to better prepare early childhood practitioners in this area. Limitations and future research lines are discussed.

The methylotrophic thermo tolerant actinomycete strain 381, was isolated from a compost sample, assimilated methanol during growth. Methanol dehydrogenase could not be detected in cell extracts using dye-linked assays in the absence of NAD+. Dichlorophenol-indophenol-linked methanol oxidation was detected in broken cell suspensions in the presence of NAD+ and the absence of cyanide. Taxonomic studies showed that actinomycete strain 381 was distinct from Nocardia species 239, which has also been reported to contain an NAD+– dependent methanol dehydrogenase. The organism can also utilizes pyruvate, casamino acid, glucose, glycerol and many other carbon sources as described before. Preliminary enzyme studies suggested that the cell extracts contained phosphoribulokinase and (RUBP) ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (the two key enzymes for Calvin cycle) which–compounds indicating that actinomycete strain 381, assimilates C1by the means of Serine pathway.

Past research suggests that children, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder, with general behavioral inflexibility to objects, persons, and environments may be at risk for feeding problems. However, questions remain about whether feeding problems are better predicted by behavioral inflexibility or sensory sensitivity, and whether general or food-specific measures are stronger predictors. The present study compared two types of behavioral inflexibility (general, food-specific) and two types of sensory sensitivity (food touch, temperature) for their association with children's feeding problems. Participants were 372 children and their parents who completed surveys on their children's demographics, as well as measures of behavioral inflexibility, sensory sensitivity, and feeding problems. The children, all referred to a feeding clinic were 71.8% male and had a mean age of 71.53 months. For this sample, 33. 7% had autism spectrum disorder (ASD), 28.7% had special needs other than ASD, and 37.5% had no special needs. ANCOVAs examined child demographics (age, weight status, medical problems, gender, special needs status) for their associations with each measure of inflexibility and sensitivity, finding that ASD was associated with more general and food-specific inflexibility, and younger age was associated with more food touch sensitivity. Hierarchical multiple regressions, which controlled for demographics, including ASD diagnosis, compared the four measures of inflexibility and sensitivity as predictors for each feeding problem. These analyses found food-specific behavioral inflexibility was the only significant predictor of all three feeding problems. Results suggest reducing the severity of children's feeding problems, clinicians focus on increasing behavioral flexibility as it relates to food.

Given the stance of education-based sport entities (i.e., NFHS) that sport participation leads to leadership development, this article aims to provide coaches and practitioners several strategies to teach leadership skills anchored in principles from skill acquisition literature. The principles explored include (1) identification of skill abilities, (2) demonstration, (3) verbal instruction, (4) specificity and (5) feedback. Following a continuum describing life skill acquisition (including structuring the sport context, facilitating a positive climate, discussing life skills, and practicing life skills), examples are provided of how to enhance leadership skill development.

Using crystal structure data, site directed mutagenesis, and real-time kinetic assays, students designed, expressed, and purified engineered mutants of human insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE). Students designed their own IDE mutants following "in silico" analysis, used inverse PCR to generate mutant plasmid expression constructs, expressed mutant proteins in "E. coli", and tested their function "in vitro." Structural requirements for enzyme function were investigated. Students demonstrated a mastery of critical concepts in enzymology including principles of experimental design and evolutionary implications of enzyme structure-function relationships. Experimental methods for the analysis of macromolecular interactions and computational approaches to scientific inquiry were explored and applied. This investigation was conducted as part of the second-semester undergraduate biochemistry laboratory at Sacred Heart University.

The UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Health Promotion Workgroup assessed diabetes awareness among African Americans at risk for the disease. Workgroup members conducted focus group discussions with the target population in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Stanislaus counties. Although obesity is considered a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, most participants cited poor dietary patterns, rather than body weight, as the most important factor in the high rate of diabetes among African Americans. Food preferences, family pressure and lack of social support were most often mentioned as obstacles to healthful dietary changes. Many felt that not enough information about diabetes was reaching the black community and voiced the need for culturally sensitive education, delivered through community-based channels.