SIGNPOSTS

This study report deals with the transition of the young adult through the pre‐leaving years, early work experience (or the lack of it), and social adjustment. It goes on to examine the potential role of network and regional broadcasting.

Initially, it reflects widespread concern about the academic/vocational balance in secondary education, the realism of careers preparation, the unemployed casualty figures, and the quality of school/home and education/industry exchanges. It notes the lack of communication between the agencies involved in their parallel fieldwork, and with the families facing individual dilemmas in education, work opportunity and adolescent disillusion.

In this context, broadcasting's prime role is access to the individual in the family setting where informed home debate and decision‐making are critical. Although specialised programme output has increased, how much relevant help is provided at regional and local level? How available is the essential follow‐up in referral centres, advisory services, print material, etc.? What about parents, teachers, employers, training supervisors and the like who might share their experience and initiative in local self‐help projects? Can general public awareness be stimulated to community action?

But if regional and local stations are to do more, there are many policy and logistic questions to be answered ‐ in partnership with official and voluntary agencies and within a network/regional plan. Although there may be a consensus that the broadcast media could play a valuable part, the question remains ‐ “From whom will the initiative come towards linkage and partnership?”.     

Special Education: an overview of recent changes

Over the last two decades, there have been major changes in policy and practice in special education. Three theoretical models are outlined together with analysis of their underlying assumptions, effects on practice and implications for innovation and change. Finally, a brief discussion of new directions in the training of specialist teachers is presented.     

Teachers as Change‐agents in Special Educational Needs: experience in England

Parallel developments in England, Wales and in Scotland have led to the establishment of posts for teachers which enable them to be effective agents of change. Research, publications and initiatives sponsored by national government, local education authorities and voluntary organisations have led to the identification of ways in which educational provision for pupils with special needs can best be made, and to the enunciation of criteria for evaluating such provision. Teacher trainers have responded with innovative approaches to course development; two case studies are offered.     

Strategies of Number Sense in Pre-service Secondary Mathematics Teachers

This paper presents some results of an investigation on the number sense of a group of pre-service secondary teachers from Spain. The objective of this research was to analyze students’ use of strategies associated to number sense and compare them with those obtained in a previous study with pre-service primary teachers in Taiwan, (Yang, Reys & Reys, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 7, 383–403, 2009). Pre-service secondary teachers showed lower success than pre-service primary teachers in a number sense test. Nevertheless, these last based their reasoning mainly on rules and algorithms, while pre-service secondary teachers used more strategies of number sense. In an attempt to delve into the low success shown by of Spanish pre-service secondary teachers, some students were interviewed. Those interviews showed that a deeper work on number sense in the training of these students is needed.     

萝卜硫烷对脑线粒体的影响:机理观点和未来发展方向

有机硫化物萝卜硫烷(SFN)是一种有效的细胞保护剂,在体外和体内实验模型中均可促进抗氧化、抗炎、抗糖化和抗菌作用。因为氧化磷酸化系统的存在,所以线粒体是三磷酸腺苷(ATP)的主要产生部位。同时,线粒体也是具核人体细胞中产生活性氧的主要场所。线粒体损伤在多种人类疾病中起着重要作用,包括神经退行性病变和代谢异常。本文描述和讨论了SFN调节哺乳动物细胞中线粒体功能和动力学的作用和机理,以及其对肿瘤细胞中线粒体促凋亡途径的促进作用。SFN对线粒体的调节作用使得它在一定程度上被认为是一种细胞保护剂。本文还指出了几个需要通过进一步实验解决的问题,即未来的可能研究方向,这可能会对该领域的研究人员具有指导作用。     

Guava extract （Psidium guajava） alters the labelling of blood constituents with technetium-99m

Psidium guajava （guava） leaf is a phytotherapic used in folk medicine to treat gastrointestinal and respiratory disturbances and is used as anti-inflammatory medicine. In nuclear medicine, blood constituents （BC） are labelled with technetium-99m （^99mTc） and used to image procedures. However, data have demonstrated that synthetic or natural drugs could modify the labelling of BC with ^99mTC. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of aqueous extract of guava leaves on the labelling of BC with ^99mTc. Blood samples of Wistar rats were incubated with different concentrations of guava extract and labelled with ^99mTc after the percentage of incorporated radioactivity （%ATI） in BC was determined. The results suggest that aqueous guava extract could present antioxidant action and/or alters the membrane structures involved in ion transport into cells, thus decreasing the radiolabelling of BC with ^99mTc. The data showed significant （P〈0.05） alteration of ATI in BC from blood incubated with guava extract.     

Intelligence assessment: Gardner multiple intelligence theory as an alternative

In the multiple intelligence framework, newer and more contextualized cognitive tasks are suggested as alternative to more traditional psychometric tests. The purpose of this article is to examine whether or not these two types of instruments converge into a general factor of cognitive performance. Thus, the Battery of General and Differential Aptitudes (BADyG: reasoning, memory, verbal aptitude, numerical aptitude and spatial aptitude) and a set of Gardner's multiple intelligence assessment tasks (linguistic, logical, visual/spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic and musical intelligences) were administered to 294 children aged 5 to 7. The confirmatory factor analysis points out the absence of a common general factor considering both batteries, indicating instead the existence of two general factors, which gather the tests that encompass them. Also, these two general factors correspond to traditional and multiple intelligence assessments and show a statistically moderate correlation between them. These results challenge Gardner's original position on refusing a general factor of intelligence, especially when considering the cognitive dimensions measured which do not coincide with the more traditional tests of intelligence.     

Race and Special Educational Needs in the 1990s

Fernando Almeida Diniz, currently in the Faculty of Education at The University of Edinburgh and formerly Reader in Special Needs in Education at the University of Greenwich, considers the effects of 'institutionalised racism' on the education of black and ethnic minority children with special educational needs.