Student-teachers' perspectives on positive and negative social processes in schools

In recent years, the Standards for Qualified Teacher Status in England have placed new emphasis on student-teachers' ability to become integrated into the 'corporate life of the school' and to work with other professionals. Little research, however, has been carried out into how student-teachers perceive the social processes and interactions that are central to such integration during their initial teacher education school placements. This study aims to shed light on these perceptions. The data, gathered from 23 student-teachers through interviews and reflective writing, illustrate the extent to which the participants perceived such social processes as supporting or obstructing their development as teachers. Signals of inclusion, the degree of match or mismatch in students' and school colleagues' role expectations, and the social awareness of both school and student-teacher emerged as crucial factors in this respect. The student-teachers' accounts show their social interactions with school staff to be meaningful in developing their 'teacher self' and to be profoundly emotionally charged. The implications for mentor and student-teacher role preparation are discussed in this article.

Flavor characterization of sugar-added pennywort (Centella asiatica L.) juices treated with ultra-high pressure and thermal processes

The flavor characteristics of pennywort juices with added sugar treated by ultra-high pressure, pasteurization, and sterilization were investigated using solid phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. It was found that sesquiterpene hydrocarbons comprised the major class of volatile components present and the juices had a characteristic aroma due to the presence of volatiles including beta-caryophyllene and humulene and alpha-copaene. In comparison with heated juices, HPP-treated samples could retain more volatile compounds such as linalool and geraniol similar to those present in fresh juice, whereas some volatiles such as alpha-terpinene and ketone class were apparently formed by thermal treatment. All processing operations produced juice that was not significantly different in the concentration of total volatiles. Practical Application: Pennywort juice is considered a nutraceutical drink for health benefits. Therefore, to preserve all aroma and active components in this juice, a nonthermal process such as ultra-high pressure should be a more appropriate technique for retention of its nutritive values than pasteurization and sterilization.

The human thalamus processes syntactic and semantic language violations

Numerous linguistic operations have been assigned to cortical brain areas, but the contributions of subcortical structures to human language processing are still being discussed. Using simultaneous EEG recordings directly from deep brain structures and the scalp, we show that the human thalamus systematically reacts to syntactic and semantic parameters of auditorily presented language in a temporally interleaved manner in coordination with cortical regions. In contrast, two key structures of the basal ganglia, the globus pallidus internus and the subthalamic nucleus, were not found to be engaged in these processes. We therefore propose that syntactic and semantic language analysis is primarily realized within cortico-thalamic networks, whereas a cohesive basal ganglia network is not involved in these essential operations of language analysis.

Intergenerational transmission of social anxiety: the role of social referencing processes in infancy

Responses to an unfamiliar adult were examined in infants of mothers with social phobia (N = 79) and infants of nonanxious comparison mothers (N = 77) at 10 and 14 months in a social referencing paradigm. On each occasion, a female stranger first interacted with the mother and then approached and interacted with the infant. Over time, infants of mothers with social phobia showed increasing avoidance of the stranger, particularly when they were behaviorally inhibited. In boys, maternal social phobia was associated with increasing fearful responses. Infant avoidance was predicted by expressed maternal anxiety and low levels of encouragement to interact with the stranger. The findings are discussed in relation to theories concerning the intergenerational transmission of social anxiety.

Attention processes in children with movement difficulties, reading difficulties or both

Reading difficulties (RD) and movement difficulties (MD) co-occur more often in clinical populations than expected for independent disorders. In this study, we investigated the pattern of association between attentional processes, RD and MD in a population of 9 year old school children. Children were screened to identify index groups with RD, MD or both, plus a control group. These groups were then tested on a battery of cognitive attention assessments (TEA-Ch). Results confirmed that the occurrence of RD and MD was greater than would be predicted for independent disorders. Additionally, children with MD, whether or not combined with RD, had poor performance on all attention measures when compared with typically developing children. Children with RD only, were no poorer on measures of attention than typical children. The results are discussed with respect to approaches proposed to account for the co-occurrence of disorders.