Depression and Anxiety in the Postnatal Period: An Examination of Infants’ Home Language Environment,Vocalizations, and Expressive Language Abilities

This longitudinal study investigated the effects of maternal emotional health concerns, on infants’ home language environment, vocalization quantity, and expressive language skills. Mothers and their infants (at 6 and 12 months; 21 mothers with depression and or anxiety and 21 controls) provided day-long home-language recordings. Compared with controls, risk group recordings contained fewer mother–infant conversational turns and infant vocalizations, but daily number of adult word counts showed no group difference. Furthermore, conversational turns and infant vocalizations were stronger predictors of infants’ 18-month vocabulary size than depression and anxiety measures. However, anxiety levels moderated the effect of conversational turns on vocabulary size. These results suggest that variability in mothers’ emotional health influences infants’ language environment and later language ability.     

Media Accountability and Journalists: To Whom Do Spanish Professionals Feel Responsible?

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses to whom Spanish journalists feel responsible. To achieve this objective, we sent out a survey to Spanish journalists to ascertain their opinion on this question. The journalists’ point of view was then compared with that of the general public though six focus groups consisting of Spanish citizens from six cities in Spain (Barcelona, Castellón, Madrid, Sevilla, Mondragón and Santiago de Compostela). Lastly, five in-depth interviews were conducted with journalism experts (e.g., directors of professional journalist associations). The main results show that the journalists feel particularly responsible to their conscience, the journalism code of ethics and their sources. The citizens, in contrast, believe that journalists should be responsible to the audience. We contextualised the Spanish finding in the European context by comparing our results with those derived from a study among European journalists.     

Impact of age on host responses to diet-induced obesity:Development of joint damage and metabolic set points

Background:Osteoarthritis is one of the leading causes of pain and disability worldwide,and a large percentage of patients with osteoarthritis are individuals who are also obese.In recent years,a series of animal models have demonstrated that obesity-inducing diets can result in synovial joint damage(both with and without the superimposition of trauma),which may be related to changes in percentage of body fat and a series of low-level systemic inflammatory mediators.Of note,there is a disparity between whether the dietary challenges commence at weaning,representing a weanling onset,or at skeletal maturity,representing an adult onset of obesity.We wished to evaluate the effect ofthe dietary exposure time and the age at which animals are exposed to a high-fat and high-sucrose(HFS) diet to determine whether these factors may result in disparate outcomes,as there is evidence suggesting that these factors result in differential metabolic disturbances.Based on dietary exposure time,we hypothesized that rats fed an HFS diet for 14 weeks from weaning(HFS Weanling) would demonstrate an increase in knee joint damage scores,whereas rats exposed to the HFS diet for 4 weeks,starting at 12 weeks of age(HFS Adult) and rats exposed to a standard chow diet(Chow)would not display an increase in knee joint damage scores.Methods:Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed either an HFS diet for 14 weeks from weaning(HFS Weanling) or an HFS diet for 4 weeks,starting at 12 weeks of age(HFS Adult).At sacrifice,joints were scored using the modified Mankin Criteria,and serum was analyzed for a defined subset of inflammatory markers(Interleukin-6,leptin,monocyte chemoattractant protein-1,and tumor necrosis factorα).Results:When the HFS Weanling and HFS Adult groups were compared,both groups had a similar percent of body fat,although the HFS Weanling group had a significantly greater body mass than the HFS Adult group.The HFS Weanling and HFS Adult animals had a significant increase in body mass and percentage of body fat when compared to the Chow group.Although knee joint damage scores were low in all 3 groups,we found,contrary to our hypothesis,that the HFS Adult group had statistically significant greater knee joint damage scores than the Chow and HFS Weanling groups.Furthermore,we observed that the HFS Weanling group did not have significant differences in knee joint damage scores relative to the Chow group.Conclusion:These findings indicate that the HFS Weanling animals were better able to cope with the dietary challenge of an HFS diet than the HFS Adult group.Interestingly,when assessing various serum proinflammatory markers,no significant differences were detected between the HTS Adult and HFS Weanling groups.Although details regarding the mechanisms underlying an increase in knee joint damage scores in the HFS Adult group remain to be elucidated,these findings indicate that dietary exposure time maybe less important than the age at which an HFS diet is introduced.Moreover,increases in serum proinflammatory mediators do not appear to be directly linked to knee joint damage scores in the HFS Weanling group animals but may be partially responsible for the observed knee joint damage in the adults over the very short time of exposure to the HFS diet.     

Government management of two media-facilitated crises involving dioxin contamination of food

Incidents become crises through a constant and intense public scrutiny facilitated by the media. Two incidents involving dioxin contamination of food led to crises in Belgium and the Republic of Ireland in 1999 and 2008, respectively. Thought to cause cancer in humans, dioxins reached the food supply in both incidents through the contamination of fat used for animal feed. The food and agricultural industries connected to each incident relied on crisis management activities of federal governments to limit adverse public reaction. Analysis of the management of the two crises by their respective federal governments, and a subsequent review of crisis management literature, led to the development of an effective crisis management model. Such a model, appropriately employed, may insulate industries associated with a crisis against damaged reputations and financial loss.     

The influence of academic culture on quality management system ISO 9001 maintenance within Malaysian universities

This study investigates the influence of the elements of academic culture on quality management system ISO 9001 maintenance within Malaysian universities. There is a dearth of empirical studies on maintaining ISO 9001, particularly in the higher education context. From the literature review, academic culture was classified according to four elements – academic freedom, individualism, professionalism and collegiality. Two case studies were conducted within Malaysian universities that had been ISO 9001-certified for 5 years. At the time of this research, these two were the only universities that had certification for their entire organisation. (Most organisations gain certification for specific departments). The findings showed that academic freedom, individualism and collegiality had worked against ISO 9001 maintenance, while professionalism had influenced ISO 9001 maintenance both positively and negatively. The opposites of individualism (teamwork) and collegiality (managerialism) had supported ISO 9001 maintenance in one of the cases.     

Bourdieu’s habitus and field: implications on the practice and theory of critical action learning

This paper considers the logic of practice of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in relation to critical action learning: in particular habitus which is co-created with field and the interplay amongst the two in the form of misrecognition and risk. We draw on interviews with participants who have experienced action learning as part of an NHS leadership programme. We argue that Bourdieu provides helpful ways of understanding and explaining the complex processes of social interactions which are centre stage in action learning – especially the ‘social friction’ through which action learners gain new insights and new prompts to action in their workplace from learning set members. These insights can support action learning practitioners keen to explore their own practice.     

The Role of Intuitive Rules in Science and Mathematics Education

During the last two decades many researchers in mathematics and science education have studied students’ conceptions and ways of reasoning in mathematics and science. Most of this research is content‐specific. It was found that students hold alternative ideas that are not always compatible with those accepted in science. It was suggested that in the process of learning science or mathematics, students should restructure their specific conceptions to make them conform to currently accepted scientific ideas. In our work in mathematics and science education it became apparent that some of the alternative conceptions in science and mathematics are based on the same intuitive rules. We have so far identified two such rules: “More of A, more of B”, and “Subdivision processes can always be repeated”. The first rule is reflected in subjects’ responses to many tasks, including all classical Piagetian conservation tasks (conservation of number, area, weight, volume, matter, etc.) in all tasks related to intensive quantities (density, temperature, concentration, etc.) and in all tasks related to infinite quantities. The second rule is observed in students’, preservice and inservice teachers’ responses to tasks related to successive division of material and geometrical objects and in seriation tasks. In this paper, we describe and discuss these rules and their relevance to science and mathematics education.     

Lawson's Shoehorn, or Should the Philosophy of Science Be Rated ‘X’?

Lawson's (2002) interpretations of Galileo's discovery of the moons of Jupiter and other cases exhibit several historical errors, addressed here both specifically and generally. They illustrate how philosophical preconceptions can distort history and thus lessons about the nature of science.