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He Taonga te Tamaiti, Every Child a Taonga: Early Learning Action Plan 2019–2029 (Ministry of Education, 2019) presents goals directed towards strengthening quality provision in early childhood education (ECE) in Aotearoa New Zealand, including actions needed to attract and retain a diverse range of kaiako in the sector. Because “Kaiako are the key resource in any ECE service” (Ministry of Education, 2017, p. 59), they must feel safe, included, valued, and respected within early learning services and have good working conditions. We surveyed early childhood kaiako to find out more about the barriers to and facilitators of inclusion and equity in the workplace for diverse kaiako. The findings show that more can and should be done at all levels to support and protect the rights, wellbeing, belonging, mana, and needs of diverse kaiako in ECE.

In the interwar period, a team from the University of Chicago oversaw an archaeological dig in Megiddo, modern day Israel. The dig’s findings, and shortcomings, proved foundational for archaeology.

Background: Huntington’s disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative autosomal dominant disorder with prevalence of 1 : 20000 that has no effective treatment to date. Translatability of candidate therapeutics could be enhanced by additional testing in large animal models because of similarities in brain anatomy, size, and immunophysiology. These features enable realistic pre-clinical studies of biodistribution, efficacy, and toxicity. Objective and Methods: Here we non-invasively characterized alterations in brain white matter microstructure, neurochemistry, neurological status, and mutant Huntingtin protein (mHTT) levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of aged OVT73 HD sheep. Results: Similar to HD patients, CSF mHTT differentiates HD from normal sheep. Our results are indicative of a decline in neurological status, and alterations in brain white matter diffusion and spectroscopy metric that are more severe in aged female HD sheep. Longitudinal analysis of aged female HD sheep suggests that the decline is detectable over the course of a year. In line with reports of HD human studies, white matter alterations in corpus callosum correlates with a decline in gait of HD sheep. Moreover, alterations in the occipital cortex white matter correlates with a decline in clinical rating score. In addition, the marker of energy metabolism in striatum of aged HD sheep, shows a correlation with decline of clinical rating score and eye coordination. Conclusion: This data suggests that OVT73 HD sheep can serve as a pre-manifest large animal model of HD providing a platform for pre-clinical testing of HD therapeutics and non-invasive tracking of the efficacy of the therapy.

The article focuses on Megiddo hoards dating to the Late Bronze Age and Iron I. As many as 17 such hoards have been discovered thus far. One particular hoard, as yet unpublished, is presented. The ...

In many regions, forestry practices are shifting to partial harvesting approaches that seek to maintain species and structural diversity in managed forests. We monitored windthrow for 21 years following partial cutting treatments with 0%, 30%, and 60% removal in a large, replicated experiment located in mixed-species mature and old-growth forests of fire origin. There was no evidence that wind damage to merchantable trees (≥17.5 cm) varied among the three removal treatments. We found no evidence of a short-term spike in susceptibility to windthrow after partial cutting during the initial years following treatment. Over 21 years, a total basal area of 2.4 m2·ha–1 was damaged, which was 5.9% of the original standing basal area at the start of the experiment. We found clear differences in susceptibility to windthrow among the different tree species. The percentage of original standing trees that were windthrown varied from 0% to 23.7%. Eight of nine species had ≤10% damage over the monitoring period. Foresters should be aware of differences among tree species in risk of wind damage but should not use a general concern about susceptibility to windthrow as a reason to avoid partial cutting systems (that can achieve a diversity of management objectives) in structurally diverse, multispecies forests.

Understanding how urbanization alters functional interactions among pollinators and plants is critically important given increasing anthropogenic land use and declines in pollinator populations. Pollinators often exhibit short-term specialization and visit plants of the same species during one foraging trip. This facilitates plant receipt of conspecific pollen-pollen on a pollinator that is the same species as the plant on which the pollinator was foraging. Conspecific pollen receipt facilitates plant reproductive success and is thus important to plant and pollinator persistence. We investigated how urbanization affects short-term specialization of insect pollinators by examining pollen loads on insects' bodies and identifying the number and species of pollen grains on insects caught in urban habitat fragments and natural areas. We assessed possible drivers of differences between urban and natural areas, including frequency dependence in foraging, species richness and diversity of the plant and pollinator communities, floral abundance, and the presence of invasive plant species. Pollinators were more specialized in urban fragments than in natural areas, despite no differences in the species richness of plant communities across site types. These differences were likely driven by higher specialization of common pollinators, which were more abundant in urban sites. In addition, pollinators preferred to forage on invasive plants at urban sites and native plants at natural sites. Our findings reveal indirect effects of urbanization on pollinator fidelity to individual plant species and have implications for the maintenance of plant species diversity in small habitat fragments. Higher preference of pollinators for invasive plants at urban sites suggests that native species may receive fewer visits by pollinators. Therefore, native plant species diversity may decline in urban sites without continued augmentation of urban flora or removal of invasive species.

Proper preparation, resource allocation, and education contribute to disaster response. The capacity and capability of a community and health system to respond to emergencies determine preparedness. Essential aspects of preparedness, including assessing resources (stuff/space), training for providers (staff), and increased communication/collaboration across networks/programs are required. Adequate response requires an understanding of emergency networks and the current state’s analysis. The initial assessment includes the identification of all stakeholders. In addition to capacity, the capability of the existing health-care network to respond with increased staffing and stuff (resources) should be addressed. The dynamic nature of an infectious disaster highlights the need for flexibility and fluidity in the organization. This coordinated effort must be collaborative, and evidence-based protocols are necessary to ensure basic practice standards. Innovation improves health-care delivery and resource utilization. Other disasters, both natural and human-made, occur during a global pandemic. Contact tracing and early mitigation are essential for coronavirus disease 2019-positive patients.

Excavations carried out in the summer of 2018 shed new light on the entire system of four super-imposed Iron Age gates at Megiddo, including the celebrated ‘Solomonic gate’, which has played a pivo...

This submission contains custom code and datasets used in the manuscript entitled "Urbanization increases floral fidelity of pollinators", by S. Suni, E. Hall, and E. Bahu.

Objectives Deliver a novel interdisciplinary care process for ICU survivor care and their primary family caregivers, and assess mortality, readmission rates, and economic impact compared with usual care. Design Population health quality improvement comparative study with retrospective data analysis. Setting A single tertiary care rural hospital with medical/surgical, neuroscience, trauma, and cardiac ICUs. Patients ICU survivors. Interventions Reorganization of existing post discharge health care delivery resources to form an ICU survivor clinic care process and compare this new process to post discharge usual care process. Measurements and main results Demographic data, Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV scores, and Charlson Comorbidity Index scores were extracted from the electronic health record. Additional data was extracted from the care manager database. Economic data were extracted from the Geisinger Health Plan database and analyzed by a health economist. During 13-month period analyzed, patients in the ICU survivor care had reduced mortality compared with usual care, as determined by the Kaplan-Meier method (ICU survivor care 0.89 vs usual care 0.71; log-rank p = 0.0108) and risk-adjusted stabilized inverse probability of treatment weighting (hazard ratio, 0.157; 95% CI, 0.058-0.427). Readmission for ICU survivor care versus usual care: at 30 days (10.4% vs 26.3%; stabilized inverse probability of treatment weighting hazard ratio, 0.539; 95% CI, 0.224-1.297) and at 60 days (16.7% vs 34.7%; stabilized inverse probability of treatment weighting hazard ratio, 0.525; 95% CI, 0.240-1.145). Financial data analysis indicates estimated annual cost savings to Geisinger Health Plan ranges from $247,052 to $424,846 during the time period analyzed. Conclusions Our ICU survivor care process results in decreased mortality and a net annual cost savings to the insurer compared with usual care processes. There was no statistically significant difference in readmission rates.

Background Protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase (PPO)-inhibiting herbicides act by inhibiting a key enzyme in the heme and chlorophyll biosynthetic pathways in plants. This enzyme, the PPO enzyme, is conserved across plant species. However, some microbes are known to utilize a unique family of PPO enzymes, the HemG family. This enzyme family carries out the same enzymatic step as the plant PPO enzymes, but does not share sequence homology with the plant PPO enzymes. Results Bioinformatic analysis was used to identify putative HemG PPO enzyme variants from microbial sources. A subset of these variants was cloned and characterized. HemG PPO variants were characterized for functionality and tolerance to PPO-inhibiting herbicides. HemG PPO variants that exhibited insensitivity to PPO-inhibiting herbicides were identified for further characterization. Expression of selected variants in maize, soybean, cotton and canola resulted in plants that displayed tolerance to applications of PPO-inhibiting herbicides. Conclusion Selected microbial-sourced HemG PPO enzyme variants present an opportunity for building new herbicide tolerance biotechnology traits. These traits provide tolerance to PPO-inhibiting herbicides and, therefore, could provide additional tools for farmers to employ in their weed management systems. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry.

In Canada and elsewhere, logging practices in natural-origin forests have shifted toward retention systems where variable levels of mature trees are retained post-logging to promote a diversity of values. We examine multiple sites that experienced a wide range of prior harvest regimes (0–76% basal area removal) to evaluate how harvest intensity and proximity to a logging-created edge affects susceptibility to windthrow for a suite of tree species in complex-structured mature and old-growth mixed-species stand types in British Columbia. We found no increased susceptibility to windthrow as a function of the level of partial harvesting. We observed a reduced susceptibility to windthrow of smaller trees after partial harvesting. There were clear differences in susceptibility to windthrow among different tree species close to the edge of gaps and small openings (

The objective of this study is to estimate possible impacts of global climate change on the geographical distribution of the African lion Panthera leo in the coming decades. Current lion population occurrence data across Africa and distributions of lions in historical times (6,000–100 years before present) were obtained from the literature and integrated with data on present-day climates to generate ecological niche models. Models based on distributions of African lions were tested for predictive ability based on various subsetting approaches and were projected across Asia, Africa and Europe, to retrodict the distribution of the species for the past 6,000 years. These models were highly accurate, giving confidence in future projections. Future potential distributions were predicted by projecting ecological niche models onto three climate scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions based on eight climate models for the years 2040–2070. The prediction was of relative range stability into the future: few new areas were identified as becoming suitable for the species but large areas of southern Africa and West Africa are expected to become less suitable. Predictions of effects of climate change on potential distributions of lions may assist conservation efforts by clarifying options for mitigation and response.

In order to examine the effect of the home language on the spelling development in English in children who are learning English as a second language (ESL learners), it is best to directly compare groups of ESL learners from various home language backgrounds. This study compared the oral language, phonological awareness, reading, and spelling performance of Tagalog–English bilingual, Cantonese–English bilingual, and monolingual English-speaking children in Grade 1. The bilingual children had lower scores than the monolinguals on measures of oral proficiency, but demonstrated similar or better performance on most phonological awareness, reading, and spelling tasks after controlling for vocabulary size in English. A series of moderated regression analysis revealed that although phonological awareness was associated with English spelling performance regardless of language background, the associations between specific spelling tasks and related underlying skills seemed to differ across language groups.

This is a descriptive study of the Children Affected by Methamphetamine (CAM) grant program, a federally funded effort to improve outcomes through the addition of targeted interventions for 1,940 families, including 2,596 adults and 4,245 children involved in 12 diverse Family Treatment Drug Courts (FTDCs) located across six U.S. states. The majority were children of parents with a primary methamphetamine use disorder. Findings reflect grantees' reporting on 18 performance indicators of child safety and permanency, adult recovery, and family well-being. Additional information gleaned from grantees' biannual reports provides insights about program implementation. Results, drawn from this large and complex dataset, indicate that comprehensively addressing families' needs is associated with better outcomes than those experienced by similarly situated families in grantees' communities and the nation overall. In addition to describing common program components and outcomes, this article presents important lessons learned about implementing evidence-based children's services in the FTDC context, as well as future directions for research and evaluation in this arena.

Since the mid-1990s the forests of central British Columbia have undergone an unprecedented Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) (MPB) epidemic that has resulted in extensive mortality of canopy lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm.). This study investigated how seed-source availability, seedbed substrate, overstory structure, and time since MPB attack interact to affect post-MPB seedling recruitment of the dominant tree species of these forests. In addition to post-MPB recruitment, these forests may be regenerated by trees established in the understory prior to MPB disturbance. Accordingly, we examined abundance and patterns of all regeneration less than 130 cm tall. We found post-MPB recruitment was sparse. Subalpine fir (Abies laciocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.) comprised the majority of the post-MPB recruitment. It increased with local parent tree basal area and increased strongly with proximity to a major seed source. This resulted in a patchy distribution for subalpine fir post-MPB regeneration. Lodgepole pine post-MPB recruitment was limited by overstory shading. Recruitment of pine decreased as the total overstory basal area increased. Interior spruce (Picea glauca × engelmannii) post-MPB recruitment was similarly limited by total overstory basal area. Seedbed substrates were uniform and dominated by moss. Substrate type distribution did not change as time since MPB disturbance increased. The overall low post-MPB recruitment observed was likely due to a lack of disturbance to the moss-dominated forest floor. Moss is known to be a poor substrate in northern forests. The distribution of all regeneration less than 130 cm tall showed the same trends as the post-MPB regeneration. We believe the post-MPB seedling recruitment dynamics of these forests was not substantially changed from conditions prior to MPB disturbance. There was no pulse of regeneration up to 10 years post-MPB disturbance. Unless this changes, future stand structure will be dominated by the seedling bank established prior to the MPB epidemic. Subalpine fir dominated the seedling bank (68%) and post-MPB recruitment (94%). This suggests that MPB-disturbed forests are undergoing a substantial shift in landscape-level species composition.

The topic of model complexity is fundamental to model developers and model users. In this study, we investigate how over- and under-fitting of a driving function in a simulation model influences the predictive ability of the model. Secondly, we investigate whether model selection approaches succeed in selecting driving functions with the best predictive ability. We address these issues through an example with the forest simulator SORTIE-ND. Utilizing maximum likelihood methods and individual tree growth data we parameterize five growth functions of increasing complexity. We then incorporate each growth function into the simulation model SORTIE-ND and test predicted growth against independent data. Compared to the independent data, the simplest and the most complex growth functions had the poorest predictive ability while functions of intermediate complexity had the best predictive ability. The poor predictive ability of the simplest model is caused by poor approximation of the system while the poor predictive ability of the most complex model is caused by biased parameter estimates. A growth function of intermediate complexity was the most parsimonious model where error due to approximation and error due to estimation were simultaneously minimized. The model selection criteria AIC and BIC were found to select complex functions that were over-fitted according to the independent data comparison. BIC was closer to choosing the model that minimized prediction error than AIC. In this example, BIC is the more appropriate model selection criterion. It is important that both model developers and models users remember that more complex models do not always result in better predictive models.

The goals of this research are to develop and test a prospective model of attention problems in sexually abused children that includes fixed variables (e.g., gender), trauma, and disclosure-related pathways.At Time 1, fixed variables, trauma variables, and stress reactions upon disclosure were assessed in 156 children aged 8-13 years. At the Time 2 follow-up (8-36 months following the initial interview), 56 of the children were assessed for attention problems.A path analysis involving a series of hierarchically nested, ordinary least squares multiple regression analyses indicated two direct paths to attention problems including the child's relationship to the perpetrator (beta=.23) and dissociation measured immediately after disclosure (beta=.53), while controlling for concurrent externalizing behavior (beta=.43). Post-traumatic stress symptoms were only indirectly associated with attention problems via dissociation. Taken together, these pathways accounted for approximately 52% of the variance in attention problems and provided an excellent fit to the data.Children who report dissociative symptoms upon disclosure of CSA and/or were sexually abused by someone within their family are at an increased risk of developing attention problems.Findings from this study indicate that children who experienced sexual abuse at an earlier age, by someone within their family, and/or report symptoms of dissociation during disclosure are especially likely to benefit from intervention. Effective interventions should involve (1) providing emotion regulation and coping skills; and (2) helping children to process traumatic aspects of the abuse to reduce the cyclic nature of traumatic reminders leading to unmanageable stress and dissociation.

The goal of this study was to develop a model of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a group of acutely burned children.Seventy-two children between the ages of 7 and 17 who were admitted to the hospital for an acute burn were eligible for study. Members of families who consented completed the Child PTSD Reaction Index, the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, and other self-report measures of psychopathology and environmental stress both during the hospitalization and 3 months following the burn. A path analytic strategy was used to build a model of risk factors for PTSD.Two pathways to PTSD were discerned: 1) from the size of the burn and level of pain following the burn to the child's level of acute separation anxiety, and then to PTSD, and 2) from the size of the burn to the child's level of acute dissociation following the burn, and then to PTSD. Together these pathways accounted for almost 60% of the variance in PTSD symptoms and constituted a model with excellent fit indices.These findings support a model of complex etiology for childhood PTSD in which two independent pathways may be mediated by different biobehavioral systems.

Glomerular filtration rate (GFR), renal plasma flow (RPF), and the endogenous creatinine clearance (CCr) rate were determined in 13 captive cheetahs, Acinonyx jubatus jubatus (seven females and six males, 1.5-7.5 yr of age, x = 5.02 yr), during general anesthesia with Telazol and isoflurane by measuring the urinary clearances of inulin, para-aminohipppuric acid, and endogenous creatinine, respectively. Methods to determine GFR, RPF, and endogenous CCr in captive cheetahs were evaluated, and the relationship between GFR and CCr for this species was determined. The GFR and the RPF were stable during the procedure, with mean values of 1.59+/-0.17 ml/min/kg body weight and 5.12+/-1.15 ml/min/kg body weight, respectively. Although the mean value for CCr (1.47+/-0.20 ml/min/kg body weight) was significantly less than the corresponding value for GFR, the mean difference (0.11+/-0.02 ml/min/kg weight) between the two measurements was slight, and the values were highly correlated (R2 = 0.928; P < 0.0001). The measurement of CCr in cheetahs should provide a reliable estimate of GFR, facilitating the early detection of renal disease in this species.

Objective To assess the psychometric properties of the Child Stress Disorders Checklist (CSDC), a 36-item observer-report instrument that measures acute stress and posttraumatic symptoms in children. Method The CSDC was administered to parents of 43 children with acute burns and 41 children who had experienced a traffic crash. This instrument was also administered to the burned children's primary nurse to estimate interrater reliability. The CSDC was completed again by parents of burned children, 2 days and 3 months later. Convergent validity was determined by correlating scores on the CSDC with scores on instruments of known validity for assessing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children. Concurrent validity was determined through an examination of the relationship between CSDC scores and an index of trauma severity (percentage of body surface area burned). Discriminant validity was assessed by administering the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL): it was hypothesized that PTSD symptoms would be more closely related to the PTSD scale of the CBCL than the Thought Problems scale of the CBCL. Results The CSDC has reliable and valid psychometric properties. Conclusions The CSDC, an observer-report instrument of ASD and PTSD in children, has important utility in clinical and research settings.

This study investigated whether Coping Motivated and Enhancement Motivated drinkers differ in their degree of semantic activation of alcohol concepts on a primed Stroop colour-naming task following exposure to negative and positive affect primes, respectively. Participants were 48 undergraduates (not necessarily problem drinkers) who had elevated scores on the Coping Motivated or Enhancement Motivated subscale of the Drinking Motives Questionnaire - Revised. The Stroop task involved negative, positive and neutral primes that preceded alcohol and no-alcohol target words. As hypothesized, Coping Motivated drinkers showed semantic activation of alcohol concepts following exposure to negative but not neutral primes. Also as hypothesized, Enhancement Motivated drinkers showed semantic activation of alcohol concepts following exposure to positive but not negative primes. Unexpectedly, semantic activation of alcohol concepts was also observed among Coping Motivated drinkers following positive primes and among En...

OBJECTIVES:To describe the pattern of perceived cognitive deficits in patients with whiplash injury, to examine the relation between perceived cognitive deficits and disability, and to examine the determinants of perceived cognitive deficits in patients with whiplash injury.PARTICIPANTS:A total of 81 individuals participated in the study. There were 29 patients (13 men, 16 women) with a diagnosis of whiplash, grade I or II. Patients with work-related soft-tissue injuries (n=24) and nonclinical controls (n=28) were included as comparison groups.METHODS:Participants completed measures of perceived cognitive deficits, pain severity, depression, anxiety and pain-related disability.RESULTS:Both patient groups scored significantly higher than the nonpatient control group on the measure of perceived cognitive deficits, but did not differ significantly from each other. Perceptions of cognitive deficits were significantly correlated with pain-related disability. A hierarchical regression examining the relative contribution of anxiety, depression and pain showed that only anxiety and depression contributed significant unique variance to the prediction of perceived cognitive deficits.DISCUSSION:The potential benefits of focusing interventions on the management of anxiety and depression in the rehabilitation of patients with whiplash injuries are discussed.

Publisher Summary Erin Hail Meade R.M., S.M., F.A.A.M., Head of Development and Public Education, passed his qualifying oral exams for doctorate in microbiology in 1980. He started as a sales guy who loved the freedom of making his own hours; he loved the challenge of selling something technical to other techno-weenies. In this chapter Erin Hail Meade reviews the perquisites, bonus, draw, and the salary commission of a salesperson. He explains that for being a successful sales and marketing guy, one should be able to write easily and well, because one will be doing a great deal of writing—proposals, bids, reports, letters, and so on. If writing is a struggle, sales is not the field; one must leave a clear paper trail behind, for both legal and professional reasons. The salesperson is often in the middle of a huge web of regulations, requirements, suggestions, and just plain field realities that need to be sorted out, coordinated, and pulled back together to make the project work.

Background To assess the incidence of and risk factors for Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) in children with injuries. Numerous studies have documented the increased incidence of PTSD in those initially diagnosed with ASD. PTSD symptoms cause tremendous morbidity and may persist for many years in some children. Methods Children hospitalized with one or more injuries were interviewed and assessed with the following: Child Stress Disorders Checklist (CSDC), Family Strains Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and Facial Pain Scale. Results Participants included sixty-five children (ages 7-18 years). The mechanisms of injury varied (e.g. MVC, penetrating). The mean injury severity score was 8.9 +/- 7. The mean length of hospital stay was 4.6 +/- 4.6 days. Altogether, 18 (27.7%) of participants met DSM IV criteria for ASD during their acute hospital stay. Risk factors such as level of family stress, caregiver stress, child's experience of pain, and child's age were predictive of acute stress symptoms. Conclusion We have identified four risk factors of ASD that have implications for the treatment, and possibly, preventative intervention for PTSD. Further investigation and greater understanding of risk factors for ASD in children with injuries may facilitate the design of acute interventions to prevent the long-term negative outcomes of traumatic events.

The purpose of this study was to (1) estimate the prevalence of acute stress disorder (ASD) in a sample of burned children, and (2) determine risk factors for ASD in these children. Seventy-two children were assessed for acute stress disorder approximately 10 days after being hospitalized for a burn. Variables hypothesized to predict ASD symptoms (i.e., size of the burn, prior behavioral symptoms, body image, parents' symptoms, heart rate) were also assessed. Based on a diagnosis derived from the ASD module of the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA), 31% of children met criteria for ASD. Path analyses revealed that the variables of heart rate, body image, and parents' acute stress symptoms were directly related to the development of ASD symptoms and accounted for 41% of its variance. These variables also mediated the relationship between the size of the burn and ASD symptoms. ASD is found in almost one third of children hospitalized for a burn. A high resting heart rate, lowered body image, and parent's acute stress symptoms were found to be significant risk factors for ASD symptoms.

OBJECTIVE To develop a model of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in parents of children with burns. METHODS Immediately following the burn and 3 months later, parents reported on their children's and their own psychological functioning and traumatic stress responses. RESULTS Approximately 47% of the parents reported experiencing significant posttraumatic stress symptoms 3 months after the burn. Our model indicates three independent pathways to PTSD symptoms (i.e., parent-child conflict, parents' dissociation, and children's PTSD symptoms). Additionally, parents' anxiety predicted increased parent-child conflict, conflict with extended family and size of the burn predicted parents' dissociation, and size of the burn and children's dissociation predicted children's PTSD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that many parents of children with burns suffer from posttraumatic stress symptoms. Interventions that target factors such as family conflict, children's symptoms, and parents' acute anxiety and dissociation may diminish the risk for PTSD.