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This collaborative research study arose in response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 3, which have amongst their targets an aim to eradicate preventable deaths in children under five years old. The research is founded on the aims of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development which aims at strengthening the social work profession through linkages between global challenges and local responses. To address these issues through nutritious child feeding, it was essential to understand the views and experiences of SW and social development practitioners involved with child feeding practices. Through an online qualitative survey and reflexive thematic analysis, we explored the views and experiences of practitioners working with the Uganda Red Cross Society. Three themes were developed from analysis of the data: Lifestyle Choices & Restrictions; Limited Resources & Facilities; and Knowledge & Education. A reflection on the challenges encountered and advancing international social work through engagement with the Global Agenda are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Selective mutism (SM) is a childhood disorder characterized by failure to speak in social situations, despite there being an expectation to speak and the capacity to do so. There has been a focus on elucidating the differences between SM and anxiety disorder (ANX) in the recent literature. Although children with SM exhibit more symptoms at school than at home, the assessment of SM typically does not involve teacher reports. There is also a lack of research to help us better understand how to best support students with SM in the classroom, and linking assessment to intervention. The "Teacher Telephone Interview: Selective Mutism and Anxiety in the School Setting" (TTI-SM) was developed by a group of researchers across three large children's hospitals in Canada, within specialized ANXs Clinics, with the goal of addressing several of these diagnostic and treatment issues. Child participants (ages 6-11) were referred for SM (n = 19) or ANX (n = 10). Findings revealed that the SM subscale of the TTI-SM has acceptable psychometric properties. Scores on the SM subscale between the two groups of children were statistically significant t(29) = -3.67, p < 0.001, ?[superscript2] = 0.33, suggesting that the SM subscale was able to distinguish between children with SM and ANX. Given the promising findings, and possible uses of this tool for assessment and intervention, the TTI-SM warrants further research. The role of the teacher in the assessment of children with SM and anxiety disorders, and future directions are discussed.

Although teachers are acutely aware of variance in students' literacy needs, many are unsure exactly how to support these needs in the dynamic classroom. This study reports on compelling evidence from Grade 2/3 classrooms in which teachers differentiated instruction in a variety of ways to benefit all students. In particular, teachers provided additional scaffolding for struggling literacy learners by offering a menu of tiered work products, expert tutoring and additional supports. At the base of instruction were common essential understandings grounded in best literacy practices: shared reading and writing, guided reading, excellent texts and literacy centres. The article emphasises the critical importance of responding to the needs of diverse and at-risk learners in the regular classroom. Differentiated instruction is suggested as a powerful organising framework in the language arts classroom.

Selective mutism (SM) is a rare and complex disorder associated with anxiety symptoms and speech-language deficits; however, the nature of these language deficits has not been studied systematically. A novel cross-disciplinary assessment protocol was used to assess anxiety and nonverbal cognitive, receptive language, and expressive narrative abilities in 7 children with SM and a comparison group of 7 children with social phobia (SP). The children with SM produced significantly shorter narratives than children with SP, despite showing normal nonverbal cognitive and receptive language abilities. The findings suggest that SM may involve subtle expressive language deficits that may influence academic performance and raise additional questions for further research. The assessment procedure developed for this study may be potentially useful for language clinicians.

This article revisits a paper and from an autoethnographic/critical reflective biographical approach re-examines seven cultural notions or myths, which may encourage ageism. It is framed within my experiential knowledge of caring for my ageing parents, with the tensions and challenges around problematising the value of expertise based on experience, communication, grief, and autonomy and freedom versus safety. The commentary emphasises that by analysing the impact of our personal life experiences, we can start to understand both the intended and unintended consequences of policy and practice affecting those in the fourth age. As a social work educator, I wanted to reflect upon how my tacit experiential knowledge, if made explicit, could impact upon my own and others' learning. The recent death of my father has allowed for a period of reflection on my own caring and indeed my professional social work experience, knowledge, skills and practice. It is argued that the ageing process is unequal as class and socio-economic factors, i.e. geography, age, gender, religion and ethnicity, all play parts in determining how someone ages, and indeed upon the care an individual older person receives. A fuller understanding of negotiating the role of one stakeholder, that of a family carer in the ageing process, is elicited in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jin and colleagues studies the effects of CD38 on oxytocin secretion by mouse model and maternal behavior. The results show that CD38 regulates the social behavior and oxytocin release.

A multilocus phylogenetic approach is applied to elucidate the origin of serradella and lupin Bradyrhizobium strains that persist in soils of Western Australia and South Africa. The observed dominance of Bradyrhizobium carariense strains might be related to this species' adaptation to acid soils common in Western Australia and South Africa and to their intrinsic ability to compete for nodulation of lupins and serradella.

This article offers a critical reflection on an international social work study programme at a Northern European university in 2015. This study develops a shared sense of the expectations and experiences of two academic staff and two students who took part in this social work programme. Interesting findings from this life-changing opportunity were ascertained and included awareness of own motivational learning as well as developing cultural competencies (including language and communication skills), intellectual competencies (including working with others to solve problems), social competencies (including increases in self-confidence and self-awareness) and professional competencies (via increases in professional networks). This supports national data regarding the importance of student mobility including study visits abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]