Leptotrichia hongkongensis sp. nov., a novel Leptotrichia species with the oral cavity as its natural reservoir

A straight, non-sporulating, Gram-variable bacillus (HKU24T) was recovered from the blood culture of a patient with metastatic breast carcinoma. After repeated subculturing in BACTEC Plus Anaerobic/F blood culture broth, HKU24T grew on brucella agar as non-hemolytic, pinpoint colonies after 96 h of incubation at 37 °C in an anaerobic environment and aerobic environment with 5% CO2. Growth was enhanced with a streak of Staphylococcus aureus. HKU24T was non-motile and catalase-negative, but positive for alkaline phosphatase, β-glucosidase, and α-glucosidase. It hydrolyzed phenylphosphonate and reduced resazurin. 16S rRNA, groEL, gyrB, recA, and rpoB sequencing showed that HKU24T occupies a distinct phylogenetic position among the Leptotrichia species, being most closely related to Leptotrichia trevisanii. Using HKU24T groEL, gyrB, recA, and rpoB gene-specific primers, fragments of these genes were amplified from one of 20 oral specimens. Based on phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, we propose a new species, Leptotrichia hongkongensis sp. nov., to describe this bacterium.     

Guidance needs of black first year students in a developing country

The guidance needs of 348 Black first year university students were investigated. The results indicate that help with academic problems (subject and course choice and study skills) should receive priority in planning university guidance services for this population group. The need for adequate financial support also proved to be a significant problem with the students. As predicted, help with making career plans did not figure as a major need, although the time variable (first week of the academic year) may have influenced the results. Contrary to a stated hypothesis, help needed with personal problems proved to be the least required service. Another important need identified was a lack of sufficient educational, occupational and personal information. Some of the recommendations made to provide adequate guidance services include sufficiently staffed guidance bureaus, the lengthening of the academic year for freshmen, non-technical information pamphlets, combining computer scoring of standardized tests with the do-it-yourself approach in order to provide reliable information and a mobile career guidance unit.     

Teacher assignment,hiring, and preparation: Minority teachers in New York City

This article examines issues related to minority teachers in New York City. Although increasing proportions of teachers hired in the last decade are black, Hispanic, or Asian, the gap between proportions of pupils and teachers remains due to increases in minority pupils. There are strong correlations between proportions of teachers and pupils in districts within racial and ethnic groups. The converse is also true; there are strong negative correlations between black and Hispanic teachers, for example, and percent of white and Asian pupils. Districts with larger proportions of minority pupils tend to have more emergency new teachers, fewer fully certified teachers, and fewer experienced teachers. Only 58% of the new black or Hispanic teachers, compared with 82% of white teachers, indicated they intend to remain in teaching after five years. Interviews with personnel directors suggest there are no systematic constraints on selection processes. New minority teachers queried about their job-search practices suggest somewhat more frustration with the process and less use of local leads than white teachers. Together these data suggest that the ability to increase the number of minority teachers is a more complex problem than recruitment and training. Moreover, minority pupils do not appear to have equal access to experienced and fully qualified teachers.     

Understanding Early Childhood Science Education: Comparative Analysis of Australian and Finnish Curricula

Research in Science Education - This research is a comparative study of Finnish and Australian science curricula in early childhood education (EC). The study aims to figure out the constructivist...     

Child care quality: centers and home settings that serve poor families

The effects of center-based care on early development, outside of carefully controlled demonstration programs, appear to be positive yet often modest for children from low-income families. But little is known about variation in the quality of centers and preschools found among low-income neighborhoods. Evidence also remains scarce on the observed quality of home-based care, the settings that most children attend and into which large infusions of federal dollars are now directed. This paper reports on the observed quality of 166 centers and 187 nonparental home settings (including family child care homes and kith or kin providers) serving children in five cities situated in California, Connecticut, or Florida. Centers displayed higher mean quality as gauged by provider education and the intensity of structured learning activities, compared to home-based settings, but did not consistently display more positive child–provider interactions. Great variability among centers and home-based settings was observed, including between-city differences. Second, we found that contextual neighborhood attributes accounted for the quality of providers selected more strongly than family-level selection factors. Mothers with stronger verbal abilities (PPVT scores) did select higher quality centers; those employed longer hours each week relied on kith and kin providers with lower education levels. Interrelationships among different quality measures are detailed. The policy implications of such wide disparities in center and home-based care quality are discussed, including how states could more carefully strengthen regulatory or quality improvement efforts.     

A Comparative Analysis of the Function of Coordination of Early Childhood Education and Care in France and Italy

In several European countries professionals are in charge of the coordination of Early Childhood Education and Care provision at local community level. For the past 20 years the number of this personnel has grown considerably in Italy and in France. This study provides a comparative analysis of the function of coordinating Early Childhood Education and Care services in these two countries as emerges from two surveys carried out in French and Italian municipalities on the status, training, and tasks of early childhood coordinators. The implications of the coordination function in the promotion of the quality of Early Childhood Education and Care are discussed. Dans plusieurs pays europe´ens, il existe des professionnels charge´s de la coordination de la petite enfance au niveau des communes. Au cours de ces vingt dernie ¤ res anne´es, le nombre de ces personnels a conside´rablement augmente´ en Italie et en France. Cette e´tude fournit une analyse comparative de la fonction de coordination des services de la petite enfance dans ces deux pays a ¤ partir de deux enquetes mene´es dans des municipalite´s italiennes et franc¸aises sur le statut, la formation et les taches des coordinateurs de la petite enfance. Les implications de la fonction de coordination dans la promotion de la qualite´ des soins et de l'e´ducation dans les services de la petite enfance seront discute´es. En varios pa L ´ses europeos, hay profesionales responsables de la coordinacio´n de la educacio´n de la primera infancia y de la provisio´n del cuidado de nin ¨ os a nivel de la comunidad local. Durante los u´ltimos veinte an ¨ os el nu´mero de este personal ha crecido considerablemente en Italia y en Francia. Este estudio proporciona un ana´lisis comparativo de la funcio´n de coordinacio´n de los servicios de la educacio´n de la primera infancia y del cuidado de nin ¨ os en estos dos pa L ´ses como ha sido presentado en dos estudios realizados en municipios franceses e italianos sobre el estado, entrenamiento, y tareas de los coordinadores de la primera nin ¨ ez. Las implicaciones de la funcio´n de coordinacio´n en la promocio´n de la calidad de coordinacio´n de la educacio´n de la primera infancia y del cuidado de nin ¨ os sera´n discutidas.     

The Olympic Games in London 2012 from a Swedish Media Perspective

The purpose of this article is to analyse the cultural information on (Olympic) sports presented in Swedish media coverage of the London Games 2012. A starting point for the analysis is that the media plays an important part in shaping a majority of the viewers' ideas about what sport is, and who is a real sportsman or sportswoman. In that way, the media gives cultural information on sports. The article focuses on a quantitative analysis of media representations, exploring how coverage intersects with gender and nationality, and devotes special attention to a comparison between the ways in which Sweden and Britain are represented in the media. The study demonstrates that there was a higher percentage of articles on Swedish sportswomen participating in the London Olympic Games compared to previous Olympics. A possible explanation is that the Swedish gender equality discourse has permeated the Swedish media, influencing it to cover sportswomen more than before. In addition, the cultural information presented to the Swedish readership about the London Olympic Games is, in short and oversimplified, nationalism rather than internationalism; that women, and especially Swedish women, practise sport; that track and field, swimming, handball, equestrian sports and football are very important and that they are performed by both men and women; and, finally, that in Britain, men play football and women are not involved in many sporting activities.