Search

High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) has a robust and long-term impact on the development of children's skills and abilities, including self-regulation. While the importance of early self-regulation is acknowledged in national curricular frameworks (Australian Early Years Learning Framework), little is known about practices employed within Australian ECEC settings to support the development of self-regulation; nor do we know how educators understand self-regulation and seek to support its development based on their understanding. The current study sought to observe educators' practices in support of children's self-regulation development in six Australian ECEC services identified for their high-quality environments and strong child outcomes. This study also sought to investigate educators' understandings of self-regulation, its development and their self-reported practices to support self-regulation development of the children in their care. Researcher observations identified the use of diverse practices that theoretical and empirical literature suggest as beneficial for self-regulation, although the pattern of practices differed across services. In interviews and reflection journals educators tended to view self-regulation from a behavioural and deficit perspective. Educators were nuanced in their views of episodic and developmental change, and adopted a comprehensive set of evidence-supported practices to support children's self-regulation. Taken together, findings provide insight into the discrepancies between definitions, operationalisations and practices for supporting self-regulation, highlighting additional areas of opportunity for ongoing professional learning and continued research--even among high-quality services such as those participating in this research.

The Sargasso Sea is a high seas ecosystem located within the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre. The floating Sargassum macroalgae for which it is named support a diverse and productive ocean ecosystem. The floating mats and windrows of Sargassum house distinct communities of animals including endemic species, and provide shelter, nursery areas and food for many others including juvenile turtles, fish, and birds. A decade ago, in 2012, the two million square mile core area of the Sargasso Sea was “described” by the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as an Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Area (EBSA), having scored highly on six of the seven designated criteria. At the time it was the largest high seas EBSA to be so described. This paper reviews the scientific evidence supporting the finding that it meets the rigorous criteria for an EBSA and assesses whether there have been major changes in the decade since. It puts this in the context of the work of the Sargasso Sea Commission and the Hamilton Declaration Signatories to “conserve the Sargasso Sea for the benefit of present and future generations” and assesses the extent to which being an EBSA has assisted with these conservation efforts.

Introduction: Young children are increasingly provided with opportunities to interact with digital technologies in their homes. Despite an accumulating body of research on children's digital interactions, little is known about how these are situated within the social and cultural context in which they take place. In this exploratory study, we aim to extend existing knowledge by offering a contextualised understanding of children's digital experiences. To do this, we draw on Activity Theory as a conceptual framework to explore how various social and cultural factors influence and interact to shape children's opportunities and interactions with digital technologies. Method: This study draws upon ethnographic and 'day in the life' methodologies to gain rich insight into children's situated digital experiences. Along with other traditional ethnographic methodologies, children aged between 3 and 6 years from 5 families were provided with wearable chest-mounted video cameras to capture their usual daily play activities at home - which included, but was not limited to, digital activities. Results: Data on digital interactions is presented for the five participating families, and through the presentation of two purposively selected in-depth illustrative examples, we demonstrate how children's digital interactions are part of a larger activity system situated within the social and cultural contexts of their homes. We also elaborate on children's natural inclination to interact playfully with digital technologies. Discussion: This study extends on current knowledges about the contextual influences of children's digital experiences and has important implications for parents and families trying to navigate the complexities of their children's digital lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given evidence that early executive functioning sets the stage for a broad range of subsequent outcomes, researchers have sought to identify ways to foster these cognitive capacities. The current series of studies sought to design, develop, and provide evidence for the efficacy of embedding cognitive activities in a commonplace activity--shared reading of a children's book. The book, "Quincey Quokka's Quest," required children to control their thinking and behavior to help the story's main character through a series of obstacles. The first study investigated effects of reading with embedded cognitive activities in individual and group contexts on young children's executive functions (EFs). The second study compared reading with embedded cognitive activities against a more active control condition (dialogic reading) that similarly engaged children in the reading process yet lacked clear engagement of EFs. The third study sought to investigate whether the effect of reading the story with embedded EF activities changed across differing doses of the intervention and whether effects persisted 2 months post-intervention. All studies provided evidence of intervention effects on shifting, with working memory benefits shown in two of the three studies, in as little as 3 weeks (compared to more traditional reading). Study 3 further indicated maintenance of these gains 2 months later. This suggests the efficacy of embedding cognitive activities in the context of everyday activities, thereby extending the range of users and contexts in which this approach can be used.

An 83-year-old diabetic man receiving corticosteroids developed a forearm lesion. Histology confirmed the presence of a dematiaceous fungus, with associated granulomatous inflammation. Culture of a biopsy yielded fungal colonies with branching chains of single-celled, melanised, dry, sympodial conidia, which were identified as Cladophialophora devriesii on the basis of morphology and rDNA gene sequencing. To date, C. devriesii has been a relatively rare cause of human disease. To our knowledge, this is only the second case to be described, and the first report of infection in a UK resident. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluated the combination of diphenhydramine, lorazepam, and dexamethasone delivered as a continuous i.v. infusion via an ambulatory infusion pump with patient-activated intermittent dosing (BAD pump) for prevention of acute and delayed nausea/vomiting in patients receiving high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) for peripheral blood progenitor cell (PBPC) mobilization (MOB) or prior to autologous PBPC rescue. The BAD pump was titrated to patient response and tolerance, and continued until the patient could tolerate oral anti-emetics. Forty-four patients utilized the BAD pump during 66 chemotherapy courses, 34 (52%) for MOB and 32 (48%) for HDC with autologous PBPC rescue. The median number of days on the BAD pump during MOB and HDC was 3 (1–6) and 9 (2–19) days, respectively. Complete overall or complete emesis control occurred on 94% of MOB and 89% of HDC treatment days during chemotherapy administration and 72% and 43%, respectively, following chemotherapy administration. Eighty-three percent of MOB and 55% of HDC treatment days were associated with no nausea. While on the BAD pump, no patient experienced severe toxicity or required hospitalization for management of nausea/vomiting. The BAD pump was safe and effective in minimizing nausea and vomiting associated with HDC, and thus, eliminated the need for hospitalization for management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concurrent Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP)/SeaSoar surveys can provide a range of quantitative and qualitative biological data at the same time and space scales as hydrographic data. The data resolve mesoscale variability for both biology and physics and can be displayed in real time – thereby allowing targeting of conventional sampling programmes. Examples from such surveys in a range of oceanic conditions and from different oceans demonstrate the complex patterns of biological distributions, and thereby acoustic variability, which change in space and time in response to both biological and physical forcing. Direct comparison of data from different areas requires absolute acoustic data. A method for converting relative ADCP backscatter to mean volume backscattering strength that includes using concurrent temperature and salinity data from SeaSoar is described; the resultant data sets can be directly compared in time and space. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]