Involvement with child protective services: Is this a useful question in population-based surveys?

Direct questions on child maltreatment in population-based surveys are often limited by ethical and methodological issues. This restricts the ability of researchers to examine an important aspect of early adversity and its relationship to health and behavior. An alternative to excluding issues of maltreatment entirely in population-based surveys is to include questions on child and family involvement with child protective services (CPS). A school-based adolescent survey that included a question on child and family involvement with CPS yielded results that were generally consistent with other studies relating child maltreatment to health and behavioral outcomes such as psychological distress symptoms, delinquency, aspects of bullying, and health service utilization. Such findings suggest that questions on involvement with CPS may be a reasonable proxy for child maltreatment. Despite the lack of information on the reason for involvement or specific categories of maltreatment, CPS involvement questions highlight the shared familial experience that surrounds CPS involvement and serves as a general reflection of an adverse experience that can be utilized by researchers interested in early experiences.     

Finding creativity and flow in a high-stakes assessment context

Remarks by the Minister for Education and Skills underscore the accountability that public institutions and the teaching profession carry for assuring the success of the nation's education enterprise. This article challenges assumptions about the nature of education that are critical to the accountability and testing regimens currently in favor internationally. While supportive of the goals of accountability systems, it argues that higher order pedagogies that reconcile competing historical trends between ‘progressive’ and ‘back to basics’ themes are very promising in an era of important new tools. These approaches include designing classroom ecosystems in ways that routinely elicit high performance and flow-like experiences in learning. Such designs, when successful, alter the terms of accountability and testing dialogues.     

Relative Effectiveness of Expository and Field Trip Methods of Teaching on Students' Achievement in Ecology

The study was a pre‐test treatment post‐test control design. Three educational districts from the Niger Delta region of Nigeria were treated as clusters. Twenty boys and 20 girls were randomly selected, making up a total of 40 students, in each of Group A, Group B, and Group C. Students in Group A were taught ecology by taking them to the school farm, pond, and nearby stream, while students in Group B were taught ecology strictly in the classroom. Students in Group C were not taught but have knowledge of ecology. Findings of the study revealed a highest performance of Group A relative to Group B and Group C. Students in Group A (field trip) were thus able to perform highest because of their opportunity of having first‐hand experience of organisms in their natural habitat.     

Physiological responses to maximal intermittent exercise: Differences between endurance‐trained runners and games players

Abstract

Six games players (GP) and six endurance‐trained runners (ET) completed a standardized multiple sprint test on a non‐motorized treadmill consisting often 6‐s all‐out sprints with 30‐s recovery periods. Running speed, power output and oxygen uptake were determined during the test and blood samples were taken for the determination of blood lactate and pH. Games players tended to produce a higher peak power output (GP vs ET: 839 ± 114 vs 777 ± 89 W, N.S.) and higher peak speed (GP vs ET: 7.03 ± 0.3 vs 6.71 ± 0.3 m s^‐1, N.S.), but had a greater decrement in mean power output than endurance‐trained runners (GP vs ET: 29.3 ± 8.1% vs 14.2 ± 11.1%, P < 0.05). Blood lactate after the test was higher for the games players (GP vs ET: 15.2 ± 1.9 vs 12.4 ± 1.7 mM, P < 0.05), but the decrease in pH was similar for both groups (GP vs ET: 0.31 ± 0.08 vs 0.28 ± 0.08, N.S.). Strong correlations were found between peak blood lactate and peak speed (r = 0.90, P < 0.01) and between peak blood lactate and peak power fatigue (r = 0.92, P<0.01). The average increase in oxygen uptake above pre‐exercise levels during the sprint test was greater for endurance‐trained athletes than for the games players (ET vs GP: 35.0 ± 2.2 vs 29.6 ± 3.0 ml kg^‐1 min^‐1 , P < 0.05), corresponding to an average oxygen uptake per sprint (6‐s sprint and 24 s of subsequent recovery) of 67.5 ± 2.9% and 63.0 ± 4.5% VO ₂ max respectively (N.S.). A modest relationship existed between the average increase in oxygen uptake above pre‐exercise values during the sprint test and mean speed fatigue (r = ‐0.68, P < 0.05). Thus, the greater decrement in performance for the games players may be related to higher glycolytic rates as reflected by higher lactate concentrations and to their lower oxygen uptake during the course of the 10 sprints.     

Anthropometric, physiological, performance, and nutritional profile of the Brazil National Canoe Polo Team

The purpose of this study was to determine the physiological, anthropometric, performance, and nutritional characteristics of the Brazil Canoe Polo National Team. Ten male canoe polo athletes (age 26.7 ± 4.1 years) performed a battery of tests including assessments of anthropometric parameters, upper-body anaerobic power (Wingate), muscular strength, aerobic power, and nutritional profile. In addition, we characterized heart rate and plasma lactate responses and the temporal pattern of the effort/recovery during a simulated canoe polo match. The main results are as follows: body fat, 12.3 ± 4.0%; upper-body peak and mean power, 6.8 ± 0.5 and 4.7 ± 0.4 W · kg(-1), respectively; 1-RM bench press, 99.1 ± 11.7 kg; peak oxygen uptake, 44.3 ± 5.8 mL · kg(-1) · min(-1); total energy intake, 42.8 ± 8.6 kcal · kg(-1); protein, carbohydrate, and fat intakes, 1.9 ± 0.1, 5.0 ± 1.5, and 1.7 ± 0.4 g · kg(-1), respectively; mean heart rate, 146 ± 11 beats · min(-1); plasma lactate, 5.7 ± 3.8 mmol · L(-1) at half-time and 4.6 ± 2.2 mmol · L(-1) at the end of the match; effort time (relative to total match time), 93.1 ± 3.0%; number of sprints, 9.6 ± 4.4. The results of this study will assist coaches, trainers, and nutritionists in developing more adequate training programmes and dietary interventions for canoe polo athletes.     

Munchausen syndrome by proxy

Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a form of child abuse in which a disorder of the child is fabricated by a parent. Although often considered rare, it may have been overlooked frequently in the past. The reported cases of children with Munchausen syndrome by proxy range in age from infancy to 8 years. Their "illnesses" consist of fabricated histories, inflicted physical findings, altered laboratory specimens, and induced disorders. The perpetrator usually is the child's mother, who may have Munchausen syndrome. Consequences of the syndrome may include painful tests, frequent hospitalizations, potentially harmful treatment, and death. The diagnosis can be made when medical and social histories are characteristic of the syndrome and clinical findings are absent, suggestive of induced illness, or resolve upon separation of the child and parent. Suspicion of the syndrome should be discussed with the family once the safety of the child is insured, and the case should be reported under the child abuse reporting law of the state. Social, family, and medical histories must be obtained and verified, and court intervention should be considered. Four patients who illustrate typical features of the syndrome are described.     

The Development and Operation of IRBs: Medical Regulations and Social Science

A sketch of the development of institutional review boards (IRBs) and the system of human subjects research regulation in the United States is presented, from the Nuremberg Code of 1949 to the Belmont Report of 1979, and continues with several contemporary developments. Conflicts within the system are discussed, particularly those related to the regulatory application of the medical model to social science. Examination of two central documents produced by participants in the IRB regulatory system is presented to illustrate difficulties with current regulation.