Updated generic search filters for finding studies of adverse drug effects in Ovid medline and Embase may retrieve up to 90% of relevant studies

Background

The most current objectively derived search filters for adverse drug effects are 15 years old and other strategies have not been developed and tested empirically.

Objective

To develop and validate search filters to retrieve evidence on adverse drug effects from Ovid medline and Ovid Embase.

Methods

We identified systematic reviews of adverse drug effects in Epistemonikos. From these reviews, we collated their included studies which we then randomly divided into three tests and one validation set of records. We constructed a search strategy to maximise relative recall using word frequency analysis with test set one. This search strategy was then refined using test sets two and three and validated on the final set of records.

Results

Of 107 systematic reviews which met our inclusion criteria, 1948 unique included studies were available from medline and 1980 from Embase. Generic adverse drug effects searches in medline and Embase achieved 90% and 89% relative recall, respectively. When specific adverse effects terms were added recall was improved.

Conclusion

We have derived and validated search filters that retrieve around 90% of records with adverse drug effects data in medline and Embase. The addition of specific adverse effects terms is required to achieve higher recall.     

Self-Study as a Means for Urban Teachers to Transform Academics

Our self-study has two main purposes: (1) to understand the value of self-study for credential program graduates to confront in transformative ways the pedagogical challenges of urban schools, and (2) to add to an exploration of self-study for non-teacher educators and strengthen our preparation of candidates to enact such inquiry. To answer these questions, we orchestrated a dialogic exchange with three Master's students who used self-study to research and improve their teaching in urban elementary schools. We analyzed their papers both to see how consistent they were with the characteristics of self-study and to determine the nature of lessons learned in relation to our social justice goals. In addition, in the following year we gathered and analyzed information about their post-study reactions to self-study and its continuing influence. In their self-studies all three examined assumptions guiding their teaching by analyzing pertinent data and functioning as critical friends for each other; their work was consistent with self-study requirements. Written reflections and interviews all mentioned the transformative influence of self-study on their thinking and practice. We also discovered that we should strengthen our guidance with regard to the specifics of self-study methodology, as in the need to look for disconfirming evidence. Although their commitment to the process was maintained, we need to explore whether and how self-study might be engaged more informally. Overall, we found that self-study invites teachers to question discriminatory categories with empirical evidence and empowers them to redefine their profession and question regressive policies.     

Book review

This paper aims to examine the experiences of pupils and professionals who are affected by actual or threatened permanent exclusion (what used to be called being expelled) from school. An ethnographic study based on the writer’s employment within secondary schools and the Children’s Services department of an urban local authority in England explores the idea that professionals may be forced to make decisions about pupils in the face of powerful competition between the politically unchallengeable concepts of tolerance, inclusivity, attainment, and choice. The paper argues that the tensions of multi‐agency working are focussed within what will be called the contested space of the pupil’s ‘extended body’. Permanent exclusion, along with its tendency to prompt a pathological reading of a pupil’s issues, is therefore seen as an authoritarian strategy designed to ameliorate the inherent paradoxical tension experienced by the various professionals working within an education system dedicated to the concept of ‘full inclusion’ but measured and funded on the grounds of academic league tables.     

To Me It’s Like Having a Kid,Kind Of: Analysis of Student Reflections in a Developmental Mentoring Program

This qualitative longitudinal study focuses on analyses of journals written by 31 sixth grade students who participated in the Chapel Buddy program. The Chapel Buddy program is a developmental mentoring program that pairs sixth graders with kindergarten students. Mentors responded to guided writing prompts three times during the course of the year. Prompts were designed to encourage mentors to explore their role as mentors and their understanding of the mentor–mentee relationship. Results indicated that the program presented a rich, experiential learning opportunity for the sixth graders to develop a relationship with a younger child, to reflect on what it means to be in a helping relationship, and to examine their experiences as “big kids.” Sixth graders varied in their ability to successfully engage and manage their kindergarten mentees, which in turn meaningfully affected the mentors’ satisfaction. Strategies to maximize the educational value of developmental mentoring programs with younger mentors are discussed.     

Assessing students’ experiences of teaching–learning environments and approaches to learning: Validation of a questionnaire in different countries and varying contexts

The study examined the use of the modified Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (ETLQ) in the Finnish context by focusing on its factor structures and comparing them with those for British data. A total of 2,509 Finnish and 2,710 British students completed the questionnaire. The comparison of the factor structures were conducted using exploratory structural equation modelling (ESEM) and a transformation analysis. Although the differences between the factor structures prevented a combined analysis, the structures were highly similar in the two contexts. The ETLQ appears to be a sufficiently robust and reliable instrument for use across countries and, in addition, at either the level of the degree subject or the single course module.     

Education for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR): a mapping of SRHR-related content in higher education in health care,police, law and social work in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) by health care, police, legal and social work professionals has been shown to be insufficient. This lack of competence is likely to affect the quality of services. The aim of this study was to describe SRHR indicators in educational programmes in health care, police, legal and social work higher education in Sweden. A text-based analysis was conducted of written material from all educational programmes in law, midwifery, nursing, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, police work, psychology, social work and undergraduate medicine (93 educational programmes at 27 universities and university colleges). Representation of different SRHR indicators varied, but most were poorly covered in the educational programmes. Existing educational programmes lack comprehensiveness in their coverage of SRHR and are unequal both within and between the professions and universities. This situation creates the risk of inequalities in SRHR competence and suggests that needs within this field may be unmet. There is an urgent need therefore to enhance the presence of SRHR in health care, social work and law enforcement education in Sweden.     

Mineralogical-chemical Alteration and Origin of Ignimbritic Stones Used in the Old Cathedral of Nostra Signora di Castro (Sardinia,Italy)

ABSTRACT

The pyroclastic rocks belonging to the Late Eocene-Miocene volcanic activity that occurred in Sardinia between 38 and 15 Ma ago were widely used as construction materials in several Romanesque churches of the easternmost Logudoro area, as well as in large parts of the Sardinia territory. In this work, the ancient Cathedral of Nostra Signora di Castro (twelfth century) was taken as a representative case study. There is no historical or archaeological evidence of ancient quarries. Based on the geochemical, petrographic, and volcanological data on several samples from an extensive field area (approximately 150?km²), a geographical zoning of the volcanics has been recognised. In the Oschiri sector, there are three different sub-zones, which can be identified with different volcanic rocks: less fractionated rocks (Differentation Index ～70–78); intermediately fractionated rocks (D.I. ～76–79); and more fractionated rocks (D.I. ～77–82). To identify the origin of the ignimbrite rocks of the Church of Nostra Signora di Castro, two statistical methods were used: stepwise linear discriminant and canonical analysis. Moreover, to define the geochemical transformation processes induced by the alteration, a comparative study of concentrations of major and trace elements measured by XRF and SEM-EDX analyses on the surface portion and the innermost areas of the stone was made.