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While much is known about the benefits of shared reading activity for children, and the role of the home in cultivating shared reading practices far less is known about the factors that can influence parents' shared reading practices with their children. Given that many young people leave school with poor relationships with reading, this study explores the links between parents' own relationships with reading and the shared reading they practice with their own children in the home. Drawing on deep-level interview data, this paper presents data from six parents of pre-school children, who reported that they have had a poor personal relationship with reading. These parents all developed positive shared reading relationships with their children, however the importance of this study lies in understanding the interplay between these reading relationships. The data strongly suggested that the construct of 'reading' was very different from the ways in which reading had previously been defined for these participants. Reading, within a shared reading context, was seen as a very flexible construct which included activities such as talking and telling stories. In some cases, parents' own relationships with reading seemed to improve. Implications for intervention with other families are discussed.

It is well established that having a parent with any illness or disability can have an adverse effect on individuals' experiences of education and on their educational progress. Advances in medical knowledge are leading to more people under 65 being diagnosed with young onset dementias and, concomitantly, to more children and young people who are in education having a parent with this diagnosis. Hardly any research has asked these young people directly about their experiences, but the limited evidence suggests that there will likely be significant emotional, mental and psychological damage with enduring impact on their lives. This article, drawing on findings from a unique narrative, auto/biographical study involving 24 British 6 to 31-year-olds, focuses on the consequences of parental young onset dementia for educational careers. These dementias are untimely progressive terminal illnesses with unpredictable trajectories and timelines, throughout the course of which physical, cognitive and emotional functions and abilities are inexorably lost. Participants' experiences show that living with a parent with young onset dementia, whilst negotiating the education system, can be extremely hard. Difficulties are exacerbated by the condition's distinctive characteristics, the current lack of any cure and anticipatory, pre-death grief. Lack of public awareness and understanding, both of young onset dementias and of dedicated resources and support services, also result in many feeling isolated and ignored. We make suggestions for positive provision and actions that educational institutions can make to begin to meet the particular needs of these young people.

Cerebral oximetry is normally placed on the upper forehead to monitor the frontal lobe cerebral tissue oxygen saturation (SctO.sub.2). We present a case in which the SctO.sub.2 was simultaneously monitored at both frontal and parietal regions during internal carotid artery (ICA) stenting. Our case involves a 79-year-old man who presented after a sudden fall and was later diagnosed with a watershed ischemic stroke in the distal fields perfused by the left middle cerebral artery. He had diffuse atherosclerotic occlusive lesions in the carotid and cerebral arterial systems including an 85 % stenotic lesion in the left distal cervical ICA. The brain territory perfused by the left ICA was devoid of collateral flow from anterior and posterior communicating arteries due to an abnormal circle of Willis. During stenting, the SctO.sub.2 monitored at both frontal and parietal regions tracked the procedure-induced acute flow change. However, the baseline SctO.sub.2 values of frontal and parietal regions differed. The SctO.sub.2-MAP correlation was more consistent on the stroked hemisphere than the non-stroked hemisphere. This case showed that SctO.sub.2 can be reliably monitored at the parietal region, which is primarily perfused by the ICA. SctO.sub.2 of the stroked brain is more pressure dependent than the non-stroked brain., Author(s): Lingzhong Meng[sup.1] , Melanie Hall[sup.1] , Fabio Settecase[sup.2] , Randall T. Higashida[sup.2] , Adrian W. Gelb[sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San [...]

Objective: Evaluate the effectiveness of the "Fruit, Vegetable, and Physical Activity Toolbox for Community Educators" ("Toolbox"), an intervention originally designed for Spanish- and English-speaking audiences, in changing knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among low-income African American women. Design: Quasi-experimental design with treatment and control groups. Setting: Four community-based organizations and direct health service provider sites. Participants: African American women ages 18-54 (156 treatment, 171 control), 75% of whom were low income. Intervention: Six 1-hour "Toolbox" classes. Main Outcome Measures: Knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, empowerment, and behavior change related to fruits and vegetables and physical activity. Analysis: Dependent t tests pre- to posttest and chi-square test between control and treatment groups. Results: Women in the treatment group reported significant changes in 9 measures of attitude, compared to 1 measure in the control group, as well as 12 measures of confidence and 5 measures of empowerment for which the control group showed no changes. Compared to those in the control group, women in the treatment group were also more likely to make behavioral changes to meet recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity. Conclusions and Implications: "Toolbox" lessons were effective in increasing participants' knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy, empowerment, and reported fruit and vegetable- and physical activity-related behaviors. (Contains 6 tables.)

This article scopes the connections between the educational use of Web 2.0 technologies in social learning spaces, and the concept of individual self-efficacy. At issue is whether the individual learner can be empowered "both" in her/his engagement with a task based upon a perception that s/he will be successful "and" in taking action as a result. The key research focus is whether these web tools enhance personal, academic self-efficacy and subsequently individual agency. It is argued that the personal developments offered by these tools present opportunities for academics and learners to enhance their self-efficacy, to take action and to increase their capability for decision-making in the curriculum. The structuring of personalised and shared spaces in which individual users can come together to make decisions and act is a critical theme, and one which impacts participation. (Contains 2 tables.)

A placement coordinator and career advisor combined industrial and career counseling expertise in preparing industry placements for British college students, who learned creative job searching, application, and interviewing techniques. Student feedback indicated the program enhanced employability and job search skills. (SK)

Abstract This article examines the experiences of breast cancer patients who received chemotherapy in their own home compared with those who were treated in hospital. Fifteen patients were randomised to [...]

This article investigates the organization of visual and spatial information in children's working memory. Findings reveal significant differences in children's performance on matrix tasks that require recollection of stable patterns and movement information which suggests that dynamic and static visuo-spatial information is maintained separately in working memory.

Research on memory in children indicates that the origination of the lexicality effect occurs just before recall in the item information redintegration, a process mostly bypassed in serial recognition. While the lexicality effect was produced by an increase of nonword phoneme identity errors, phonological similarity effect arose due to phoneme order errors.