Severe Learning Difficulties in Northern Ireland: Leaving School

Responsibility for pupils with severe learning difficulties in Northern Ireland was only recently taken by the education authorities. The findings of research into the school leaving arrangements are described by Dr Ian Wells, senior research officer with the Northern Ireland Council for Educational Research (NICER), Belfast.     

A model to explain information seeking behaviour by individuals in the response phase of a disaster

This Australian study establishes a model that provides a foundation for communication channels and tools selection by agencies in the post-warning response phase of a disaster. The model, developed from disaster and information seeking literature, attempts to predict information source and channel selection by people after their community has received a warning for a disaster. It provides the coding framework for analysis of 51 semi-structured interviews with disaster-affected Australians. The interviews tested the model for accommodation of channels and sources that people chose, found most useful, and used most in bushfire, slow flood, flash flood, and cyclone situations. The order of initial sources was investigated and preliminary information seeking pathways established across disaster types. The disaster information seeking model supports this investigation of information seeking behaviour, though improvements are suggested. The resulting model could guide agency response communication for different disaster types.     

Investigating married adults’ communal coping with genetic health risk and perceived discrimination

Increased genetic testing in personalized medicine presents unique challenges for couples, including managing disease risk and potential discrimination as a couple. This study investigated couples’ conflicts and support gaps as they coped with perceived genetic discrimination. We also explored the degree to which communal coping was beneficial in reducing support gaps and ultimately stress. Dyadic analysis of married adults (N?=?266, 133 couples), in which one person had the genetic risk for serious illness, showed that perceived discrimination predicted more frequent conflicts about alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency-related treatment, privacy boundaries, and finances, which, in turn, predicted wider gaps in emotion and esteem support, and greater stress for both spouses. Communal coping predicted lower support gaps for both partners and marginally lower stress.     

Effects of power variation on cycle performance during simulated hilly time-trials

It has previously been shown that cyclists are unable to maintain a constant power output during cycle time-trials on hilly courses. The purpose of the present study is therefore to quantify these effects of power variation using a mathematical model of cycling performance. A hypothetical cyclist (body mass: 70?kg, bicycle mass: 10?kg) was studied using a mathematical model of cycling, which included the effects of acceleration. Performance was modelled over three hypothetical 40-km courses, comprising repeated 2.5-km sections of uphill and downhill with gradients of 1%, 3%, and 6%, respectively. Amplitude (5–15%) and distance (0.31–20.00?km) of variation were modelled over a range of mean power outputs (200–600?W) and compared to sustaining a constant power. Power variation was typically detrimental to performance; these effects were augmented as the amplitude of variation and severity of gradient increased. Varying power every 1.25?km was most detrimental to performance; at a mean power of 200?W, performance was impaired by 43.90?s (±15% variation, 6% gradient). However at the steepest gradients, the effect of power variation was relatively independent of the distance of variation. In contrast, varying power in parallel with changes in gradient improved performance by 188.89?s (±15% variation, 6% gradient) at 200?W. The present data demonstrate that during hilly time-trials, power variation that does not occur in parallel with changes in gradient is detrimental to performance, especially at steeper gradients. These adverse effects are substantially larger than those previously observed during flat, windless time-trials.     

Disruptive silence: deepening experiential learning in the absence of technology

Technology plays an integral role in the lives of the majority of the US population. As technology becomes integrated into young people’s lives, questions arise regarding its effects on learning. This exploratory study draws on interviews with students who attend university in the United States to determine how separating students from technology deepens experiential learning. Participants were interviewed following a study abroad course to New Zealand, during which they were disconnected from technologies such as cell phones, the Internet and social media. In the interviews, students discussed their feelings of being disconnected and describe how disconnecting impacted their overall experience. Participants agreed that disconnecting from technology had positive effects on experiential learning and the global experience. Major themes that emerged include students’ enhanced immersion and engagement, the value of disconnection in providing opportunities for personal growth and the difficulty of initial separation from technology as a result of conditioning.     

The relationship between individual instructional characteristics and the overall assessment of teaching effectiveness across different instructional contexts

There is an ongoing debate in the student evaluation of teaching literature about whether an overall rating or factorial dimensions of teaching effectiveness should be used in personnel decisions. Marsh and his colleagues have advocated the use of a weighted average approach to computing overall evaluations. A policy-capturing experiment was carried out where students in three different instructional contexts made overall evaluations of hypothetical instructors based on a manipulation of the teaching factors in Marsh's SEEQ. The results indicated (1) amount learned was consistently the most important factor affecting overall evaluations; (2) course difficulty was consistently the least important factor affecting overall evaluations; and (3) there was a strong similarity among the three groups in the relative importance of the various teaching factors in arriving at an overall evaluation. The implications of this research are discussed, as well as directions for future research.     

Perianal findings in prepubertal children selected for nonabuse: a descriptive study

The results of the perianal portion of a project designed to collect normative data of the anogenital anatomy from a representative sample of prepubertal children is presented. A total of 318 children were examined by three physicians from a child sexual abuse evaluation program. After screening for the onset of puberty and the possibility of undetected abuse, 267 subjects remained. The sample included 161 girls and 106 boys ranging in age from 2 months to 11 years. The perianal findings that were encountered with the greatest frequency included erythema (41%), increased pigmentation (30%), and venous engorgement (52%) after two minutes in the knee-chest position. Wedge-shaped smooth areas in the midline, with or without depressions, were found both anterior and posterior to the anus in 26% of the children. Anal skin tags/folds were discovered anterior to the anus in 11%. In 49% of the children there was some dilatation of the anus which opened and closed intermittently in 62%. Flattening of the anal verge and rugae occurred during dilatation by the midpoint of the examination in 44% and 34%, respectively. Perianal findings that were found infrequently in all subgroups included skin tags/folds (0%) and scars (1%) outside the midline, anal dilatation greater than 20 mm without the presence of stool in the rectal ampulla (1.2%), irregularity of the anal orifice after complete dilatation (3%), and prominence of the anal verge (3%). No abrasions, hematomas, fissures, or hemorrhoids were encountered. Less commonly detected findings within specific subgroups included perianal erythema in girls (32%) as compared to boys (57%), pigmentation in the lighter skinned white children (22%) when compared to black (53%) and Hispanic (58%) children, and venous congestion at the beginning of the examination (7%) when compared to the same findings after four minutes in the knee-chest position (73%). There were no perianal skin tags/folds found in the boys. The relatively high incidence of perianal soft tissue changes that were found in this study, when compared to the frequency of similar observations in children suspected of having been sexually abused, reemphasizes the caution medical examiners must exercise in rendering an opinion as to the significance of medical findings.