A study of primary teeth restored by intracoronal restorations in children participating in an undergraduate teaching programme at Cork University Dental School and Hospital, Ireland

Aim: To study the outcomes for restored primary molar teeth; to examine outcomes in relation to tooth type involved, intracoronal restoration complexity and to the material used. Materials and methods: Design: Retrospective study of primary molar teeth restored by intracoronal restorations. A series of restored primary molar teeth for children aged 6-12 years was studied. The principal outcome measure was failure of initial restoration (re-restoration or extraction). Three hundred patient records were studied to include three equal groups of primary molar teeth restored with amalgam, composite or glass ionomer, respectively. Restorative materials, the restoration type, simple (single surface) or complex (multi-surface) restoration, and tooth notation were recorded. Subsequent interventions were examined. Data were coded and entered into a Microsoft Excel database and analysis undertaken using SPSS v.18. Statistical differences were tested using the c2 test of statistical significance. Results: Of the 300 teeth studied, 61 restoration failures were recorded with 11 of those extracted. No significant differences were found between outcomes for upper first, upper second, lower first or lower second primary molars. Outcomes for simple primary teeth restored by intracoronal restorations were significantly better than those for complex intracoronal restorations (P = 0.042). Teeth originally restored with amalgam accounted for 19.7% of the 61 failures, composite for 29.5%, while teeth restored with glass ionomer represented 50.8% of all restoration failures. The differences were significant (P = 0.012). Conclusions: The majority (79.7%) of the 300 restored primary teeth studied were successful, and 3.7% teeth were extracted. Restorations involving more than one surface had almost twice the failure rate of single surface restorations. The difference was significant. Significant differences in failure rates for the three dental materials studied were recorded. Amalgam had the lowest failure rate while the failure rate with glass ionomer was the highest.

The Kyoto School and Confucianism: a Confucian reading of the philosophy of history and political thought of Masaaki Kosaka

This dissertation examines the philosophy of Masaaki Kōsaka (1900-1969) from the East Asian perspective of Confucianism, which I believe is the most appropriate moral paradigm for comprehending his political speculations. Although largely neglected in post-war scholarship, Kōsaka was a prominent member of the Kyoto School during the 1930s and 40s. This was a group of Japanese thinkers strongly associated with the philosophies of Kitarō Nishida and Hajime Tanabe. Kōsaka is now best known for his participation in the three Chūō Kōron symposia held in 1941 and 1942. These meetings have been routinely denounced by liberal historians due to the participants’ support for the Pacific War and the Co-Prosperity Sphere. However, many of these liberal portrayals have failed to take into account the full extent of the group’s resistance to the military junta of Hideki Tōjō. Adopting the methods and techniques of the empirical disciplines of academic history and Orientalism, I develop an interpretative framework that is more receptive to the political values that mattered to Kōsaka as a Confucian inspired intellectual. This has necessitated the rejection of moral history, which typically prioritises modern liberal values brought a priori to the historical record of wartime Japan, as well as recognition of the different ontological foundations that inform the unique political theories of the East Asian intellectual tradition. Reinforced by the prior research of Michel Dalissier and Graham Parkes, as well as my own reading of the Confucian canon, I adopt David Williams’s thesis of ‘Confucian Revolution’ as my principle schema of interpretation. This, I believe, is better able to reconcile Kōsaka’s support for the war with his strong condemnation of the imperialist practices of the Japanese military. Moreover, acknowledging the importance of Confucianism allows us to fully appreciate Kōsaka’s strong affinity for Kant’s practical metaphysics, Hegel’s political philosophy and Ranke’s historiography.

The School and the State. Comparative Study of the Althusserian Concept of “Ideological State Apparatus”

The famous althusserian concept “The ideological State apparatus” has the inconvenient of hiding what truly should have to be discussed: The Kind of State of which it is talking about. Mostly, avoids realizing the fact that the architecture of the modern State was thought of, precisely, as antidote against ideological control. The success and failures of this political project become then, very difficult to diagnose.

School and Community Screening Shows Malawi, Africa, to Have a High Prevalence of Latent Rheumatic Heart Disease

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is the largest cardiac cause of morbidity and mortality in the world's youth. Early detection of RHD through echocardiographic screening in asymptomatic children may identify an early stage of disease, when secondary prophylaxis has the greatest chance of stopping disease progression. Latent RHD signifies echocardiographic evidence of RHD with no known history of acute rheumatic fever and no clinical symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: Determine the prevalence of latent RHD among children ages 5-16 in Lilongwe, Malawi.

DESIGN: This is a cross-sectional study in which children ages 5 through 16 were screened for RHD using echocardiography.

SETTING: Screening was conducted in 3 schools and surrounding communities in the Lilongwe district of Malawi between February and April 2014.

OUTCOME MEASURES: Children were diagnosed as having no, borderline, or definite RHD as defined by World Heart Federation criteria. The primary reader completed offline reads of all studies. A second reader reviewed all of the studies diagnosed as RHD, plus a selection of normal studies. A third reader served as tiebreaker for discordant diagnoses. The distribution of results was compared between gender, location, and age categories using Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS: The prevalence of latent RHD was 3.4% (95% CI = 2.45, 4.31), with 0.7% definite RHD and 2.7% borderline RHD. There was no significant differences in prevalence between gender (P = .44), site (P = .6), urban vs. peri-urban (P = .75), or age (P = .79). Of those with definite RHD, all were diagnosed because of pathologic mitral regurgitation (MR) and 2 morphologic features of the mitral valve. Of those with borderline RHD, most met the criteria by having pathological MR (92.3%).

CONCLUSION: Malawi has a high rate of latent RHD, which is consistent with other results from sub-Saharan Africa. This study strongly supports the need for a RHD prevention and control program in Malawi.

Making meaningful connections: Using insights from social pedagogy in statutory child and family social work practice

Reports into incidents of child death and serious injury have highlighted consistently concern about the capacity of social workers to communicate skilfully with children. Drawing on data collected as part of an Economic and Social Research Council funded UK-wide research project exploring social workers’ communicative practices with children, this paper explores how approaches informed by social pedagogy can assist social workers in connecting and communicating children. The qualitative research included data generated from 82 observations of social workers’ everyday encounters with children. Social pedagogical concepts of ‘haltung’ (attitude), ‘head, heart and hands’ and ‘the common third’ are outlined as potentially helpful approaches for facilitating the intimacies of inter-personal connections and enhancing social workers’ capacity to establish and sustain meaningful communication and relationships with children in the face of austere social, political and organisational contexts.

Culturally Sensitive Care of the Baby and Family in the NICU: a review of the literature

This oral presentation summarised the literature on cultural differences in grieving and provision of end-of-life care in the nICU

Measuring children’s experience of their right to participate in school and community: a rights-based approach

This paper discusses the development of a children’s rights-based measure of participation and the findings from its use in a survey of 10 to 11 year old children (n= 3773). The measure, which was developed in collaboration with a group of children, had a high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = .89). Findings suggest that children’s positive experience of their participation rights is higher in school than in community, and higher for girls compared to boys. It is argued that involving children in the ‘measurement’ of their own lives has the potential to generate more authentic data on children’s lived experiences.

Newham’s Every Child a Sports Person (NECaSP): A Summative Process Evaluation of a School-and-Community Based Intervention in East London, UK

Background: The NECaSP intervention aspires to increase sport and physical activity (PA) participation amongst young people in the UK. The aims of this paper are to report on a summative process evaluation of the NECaSP and make recommendations for future interventions. Methods: Seventeen schools provided data by students aged 11-13 (n=1,226), parents (n=192) and teachers (n= 14) via direct observation and questionnaires. Means, standard deviations and percentages were calculated for socio-demographic data. Qualitative data was analysed via directed content analysis and main themes identified. Results: Findings indicate further administrative, educational and financial support will help facilitate the success of the programme in improving PA outcomes for young people, and of other similar intervention programmes globally. Data highlighted the need to engage parents to increase likelihood of intervention success. Conclusions: One main strength of this study is the mixed-methods nature of the process evaluation. It is recommended that future school based interventions that bridge sports clubs and formal curriculum provision, should consider a more broad approach to the delivery of programmes throughout the academic year, school week and school day. Finally, changes in the school curriculum can be successful once all parties are involved (community, school, families).

Undertaking Sensitive Interviews: a Researcher’s Experience of Interviewing Bereaved Parents and Family GPs

The presentation describes the researcher’s experience of undertaking sensitive interviews. Background The interviews form part of a current study that is examining bereaved parents’ experience of caring for their child at home as well as the experience of their GP. This study builds on earlier work that found general practitioners (GPs) were at times uncertain of their role in paediatric palliative care and questioned whether their involvement had been beneficial to the child and family. The rarity of childhood cancer deaths makes it difficult for GPs to develop or maintain palliative care knowledge and skills yet the GP is perceived as the gatekeeper for care within the community. Presentation aim To describe the process of both the preparation for, and undertaking of, sensitive interviews. Study methodology The methodology incorporates tape-recorded semi-structured interviews, thematic framework analysis and Q methodology (QM). QM will be used to capture the experiences of GPs who have cared for a child with cancer receiving palliative care as well the perspectives of care experienced by the families. The semi-structured interview sample comprises 10 families (parents/guardians) whose child has been treated at a regional childhood cancer centre and their GPs. A further 40-60 GPs will be involved in the QM. Findings The preparation for these interviews will be discussed and compared to the supportive bereavement visits undertaken within the researcher’s role as a paediatric Macmillan nurse. The experience of undertaking the interviews will be exemplified with findings from the initial and the current, study. Papers’ contribution The researcher’s experience of preparing for and undertaking sensitive interviews may prove beneficial to other researchers.

Live Work: The Impact of Direct Encounters in Statutory Child and Family Social Wor

The aim of this research project was to examine the impact of direct work on practitioners in the field of statutory child protection. The author’s premise was that this work was anything but straightforward and that surprisingly, given the intense scrutiny on Children’s Services following a child death, there was little research into the day-to-day practice of front line staff. The aim was to explore whether psychoanalytic theory could be useful in understanding and making sense of the social work task. Data was collected through observation and semi-structured interviews in one Local Authority Child in Need team over a period of six months. The findings indicated that practitioners experienced direct work with some individuals and families as profoundly disturbing and that this affected them physiologically as well as psychologically. These effects persisted over time and appeared very difficult for the workers to process or articulate. This could be expressed through embodied or non-verbal communication in the interview. Practitioners appeared to be ‘inhabited’ by particular clients, suggesting phenomena such as projective identification were in operation. The intensity and persistence of the impact on the practitioners appears to be directly related to the quality, nature and intensity of the psychic defences functioning for the particular client. Significantly, the research indicated that when practitioners were dealing with the negative and disturbing projections from the (adult) clients it seemed from the data that the focus on the child would slip so that the child appeared to recede from view. Symptoms experienced by the practitioners were akin to trauma and research and theory on primary and secondary trauma were considered. Other issues raised included shame, which affects the clients, practitioners and the organisation and the meaning and implications of this are explored. Links between neuroscience and projective identification are addressed as well as the role of the organisation, particularly as a container for these toxic and disturbing encounters.

2015-2016 ACCOUNTABILITY MANUAL : The Annual School and District Report Card System for South Carolina Public Schools and School Districts

State law requires that for school years 2014-15 and 2015-16 the EOC will not rate schools or districts but will instead report on student academic performance. The Education Oversight Committee must use the results of these assessments in school years 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 to report on student academic performance in each school and district pursuant to Section 59-18-900. The state report card for school year 2015-16 will include assessment information and measurements that address the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate.

SEMINAR ON CENTRAL CONCLUSIONS MANIFESTS IFLA-UNESCO FOR PUBLIC LIBRARY, SCHOOL AND INTERNET

Central America is a region with accumulated experiences of collaborative work in developing the Central Library, among them are: The CSUCA (Council of Central American Universities) globally recognized organization founded in 1948 has strengthened the development of University Libraries, with the creation of the Central American University Libraries. Another significant contribution is made by the Public Libraries and supported by SIDA (Swedish International Development Agency) has substantially expanded the concept of National Public Library. Today is forming the Confederation of Associations and Colleges Central Library, a product of the Workshop held in El Salvador, with the support of IFLA / ALP.

Student, school, and country differences in sustained test-taking effort in the 2009 PISA reading assessment

In this article, the change in examinee effort during an assessment, which we will refer to as persistence, is modeled as an effect of item position. A multilevel extension is proposed to analyze hierarchically structured data and decompose the individual differences in persistence. Data from the 2009 Program of International Student Achievement (PISA) reading assessment from N = 467,819 students from 65 countries are analyzed with the proposed model, and the results are compared across countries. A decrease in examinee effort during the PISA reading assessment was found consistently across countries, with individual differences within and between schools. Both the decrease and the individual differences are more pronounced in lower performing countries. Within schools, persistence is slightly negatively correlated with reading ability; but at the school level, this correlation is positive in most countries. The results of our analyses indicate that it is important to model and control examinee effort in low-stakes assessments. (DIPF/Orig.)

Inequities in energy-balance related behaviours and family environmental determinants in European children: baseline results of the prospective EPHE evaluation study

BACKGROUND:Tackling inequalities in overweight, obesity and related determinants has become a top priority for the European research and policy agendas. Although it has been established that such inequalities accumulate from early childhood onward, they have not been studied extensively in children. The current article discusses the results of an explorative analysis for the identification of inequalities in behaviours and their determinants between groups with high and low socio-economic status. METHODS: This study is part of the Epode for the Promotion of Health Equity (EPHE) evaluation study, the overall aim of which is to assess the impact and sustainability of EPODE methodology to diminish inequalities in childhood obesity and overweight. Seven community-based programmes from different European countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Portugal, Romania, The Netherlands) participate in the EPHE study. In each of the communities, children aged 6-8 years participated, resulting in a total sample of 1266 children and their families. A parental self-administrated questionnaire was disseminated in order to assess the socio-economic status of the household, selected energy balance-related behaviours (1. fruit and vegetable consumption; 2. soft drink/ fruit juices and water consumption; 3. screen time and 4. sleep duration) of the children and associated family environmental determinants. The Mann-Whitney U test and Pearson's chi-square test were used to test differences between the low and high education groups. The country-specific median was chosen as the cut-off point to determine the educational level, given the different average educational level in every country. RESULTS: Children with mothers of relatively high educational level consumed fruits and vegetables more frequently than their peers of low socio-economic status. The latter group of children had a higher intake of fruit juices and/or soft drinks and had higher screen time. Parental rules and home availability were consistently different between the two socio-economic groups in our study in all countries. However we did not find a common pattern for all behaviours and the variability across the countries was large. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are indicative of socio-economic inequalities in our samples, although the variability across the countries was large. The effectiveness of interventions aimed at chancing parental rules and behaviour on health inequalities should be studied.

Representação escolar dos pais, envolvimento e contributo para a relação educativa

Dissertação de mest. em Observação e Análise de Relação Educativa, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Univ. do Algarve, Escola Superior de Educação, Instituto Politécnico de Beja, 2005