Comparison of computed tomography and chest radiography in the detection of rib fractures in abused infants

PURPOSE: Chest radiographs (CXR) are the standard method for evaluating rib fractures in abused infants. Computed tomography (CT) is a sensitive method to detect rib fractures. The purpose of this study was to compare CT and CXR in the evaluation of rib fractures in abused infants. METHODS: This retrospective study included all 12 abused infants identified from 1999 to 2004 who had rib fractures and both CXR and CT (8 abdomen CTs, 4 chest CTs). CT exams had been performed for clinical indications, and were obtained within one day of the CXR. Studies were reviewed by two pediatric radiologists to determine the number, locations, and approximate ages of the rib fractures. A total of 225 ribs were completely (192) or partially (33) seen by CT, and the matched ribs on CXR were used for the analysis. RESULTS: The mean patient age was 2.5 months (1.2-5.6), with seven females and five males. While 131 fractures were visualized by CT, only 79 were seen by CXR (p<.001). One patient had fractures only seen by CT. There were significantly (p<.05) more early subacute (24 vs. 4), subacute (47 vs. 26), and old fractures (4 vs. 0) seen by CT than by CXR. Anterior (42 vs. 11), anterolateral (21 vs. 12), posterolateral (9 vs. 3) and posterior (39 vs. 24) fractures were better seen by CT than by CXR (p<.01). Bilateral fractures were detected more often by CT (11) than by CXR (6). CONCLUSIONS: While this study group is small, these findings suggest that CT is better than CXR in visualizing rib fractures in abused infants.     

Selectivity in Learning: A Theme in the Application of Whitehead’s Theory of Prehensions to Education

This paper, which is particularly centered on the student’s learning process, is the first half of a detailed study of selectivity in Whitehead’s philosophy of education. Here, by setting forth the analogy between the creative process exhibited in Whitehead’s Theory of Prehensions and the learning process through an interpretation of the term, ‘prehending subject’ as ’learner,’ I argue that selectivity, via ‘negative prehensions,’ is the efficient motive power at work in the process of learning. Various concrete classroom examples of selectivity are alluded to, which lend support to this thesis. With clues from the Aims of Education, by reading the theory of prehensions with some conceptual modifications made for the purposes of education, I present the perspective that, as one side of a logical contrast, Whitehead’s theory of prehensions can be said to be conducive to a critical pedagogy.     

The experiences of lesbian,gay and bisexual students and staff at a Further Education college in South East England

Research exploring the educational experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) students and staff members has traditionally been characterised by homophobia, hostility, victimisation and marginalisation. Recent research has evidenced a shift in the experiences of LGB young people, to somewhat more accepting and positive narratives, including within post‐compulsory schooling. Yet, there is limited research exploring the lived experiences of LGB staff members in the Further Education context. Utilising inclusive masculinity as a sociological paradigm, this research explores the qualitative data from the narratives of 26 LGB staff and students at one Further Education college in the south of England. The results find a distinct lack of homophobia within this college, a nuanced understanding of homosexually themed language, and an organisational culture of inclusivity and widespread symbolic visibility of the LGB community. Overall, our research aligns with broader social patterns that the experiences for LGB persons is improving.     

Travelling policies and contextual considerations: on threshold criteria

Educational policy borrowing has become rather common in our globalised world. However, the literature lacks contextual criteria that may be employed by researchers and policy makers to assess the correspondence of a particular policy to the local context of a borrowing system. Based on a secondary analysis of documents and research reports, this paper describes the process of policy borrowing in the Israeli and Turkish educational systems. Discrepancies were found between the basic qualities of the borrowed policies and the contextual features and processes that characterise each educational system. The lack of congruency appears to be even deeper in centralised structures where the act of policy setting is done by top-level policy makers who are isolated from local school circumstances. Threshold criteria referring to fundamental considerations during decision making are offered and their theoretical and practical implications for centralised structures are discussed.     

MicroObservatory Net: A Network of Automated Remote Telescopes Dedicated to Educational Use

Many students have a deep interest in astronomy, but a limited opportunity to use telescopes to explore the heavens. The MicroObservatory Network of automated telescopes is designed to provide access to classroom teachers who wish their students to conduct projects over the World Wide Web. The intuitive interface makes it easy for even 10-year-olds to take pictures. Telescopes can be remotely pointed and focused: filters, field of view, and exposure times can be changed easily. Images are archived at the website, along with sample challenges and a user bulletin board, all of which encourage collaboration among schools. Wide geographic separation of instruments provides access to distant night skies during local daytime. Since first light in 1995, we have learned much about remote troubleshooting, designing for unattended use, and for acquiring the kinds of images that students desire. This network can be scaled up from its present capability of 240,000 images each year to provide telescope access for all US students with an interest in astronomy. Our WWW address is http://mo-www.harvard.edu/MicroObservatory/     

Modifying socially withdrawn behavior: A playground intervention for students with internalizing behaviors

There is little research regarding interventions for children with internalizing behaviors in schools, both within classrooms and in nonclassroom environments. In response to this need, a nonclassroom treatment package, consisting of (a) social skills instruction, (b) mediated self‐management, and (c) a reinforcement system, was implemented to modify the socially withdrawn behavior of 3 elementary students. The effects of this treatment package were evaluated on the school playground—during recess—by recording both the number of communicative acts and the total time spent engaged in appropriate peer play for each target student. All target students showed marked improvement in their playground, social interaction. Future research should be conducted with similar populations, using variations of the described methods in other school settings. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 779–794, 2007.     

Posthumanist Perspectives on Racialized Life and Human Difference Pedagogy

This discussion begins from the speculation that evaluating formulations of life has become one of the leading prerogatives of “novel” turns to matter, materiality, and the posthuman. However, moving with the Other (rather than simply representing them) has proven a difficult task for scholars in education concerned with decolonizing pedagogies by critiquing epistemological and ontological regimes of power disengaged from the interrogation of the metaphysics of race and sex at the center of Western metaphysical foundations of thought. There is an ongoing need for sustained engagement with the assumption of human primacy that runs through the nearly ubiquitous assertions of what Claire Colebrook calls active vitalism, which is characteristic of humanist approaches to education. In other words, the new conceptualizations of posthumanism only rarely challenge the lingering humanist concept of life itself. In this article, Petra Mikulan and Adam Rudder argue that posthumanist and neo‐vitalist materialist approaches to ontology must consider that racism is vitalist in the active sense because it begins with bodies (as bounded organisms always autopoetic and self‐proximate) and that vitalism is racist because it then distributes and discriminates racialized bodies according to their function as parts in a whole.     

Preservice teachers’ perceptions of an ICT-rich learning environment: Development of an instrument

This article reports the development of an instrument to measure preservice teachers’ perceptions of the Study Landscape (SLS), which is an ICT-infused learning environment that encourages preservice teachers to direct their own learning to build a two-way relationship between theory and teaching practice. This study comprised a qualitative and quantitative part. Six factors derived from interviews with users formed the basis of the instrument: (1) Support of Learners’ Initiatives; (2) Support of Information Searches; (3) Support of Interaction; (4) Relationship with Fellow Students; (5) Relationship with Teacher Educators; and (6) Relationship with SLS Staff. Once developed, the questionnaire was responded to by 186 students. Analysis of the data supported five out of six factors.