This chapter explores the ecology of human development, those forces in the person's environment that affect and influence development. Urie Bronfenbrenner's model of the human ecosystem guides the discussion, making connections between children in families and in communities and the larger society that surrounds them. The human ecosystem model is much like the study of the natural ecology, focusing on the interactions between subjects at various levels of the environment as they affect each other. The interaction between individual and environment forms the basis of an ecological approach to human development. This view sees the process of development as the expansion of the child's conception of the world and the child's ability to act on that world. Risks to development can come from both direct threats and the absence of opportunities for development. Sociocultural risk refers to the impoverishment in the child's world of essential experiences and relationships.

The Ecology of Human Development

Background Studies of fruit and vegetable consumption in relation to overall health are limited. We evaluated the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and the incidence of cardiovascular disease and cancer and of deaths from other causes in two prospective cohorts. Methods A total of 71 910 female participants in the Nurses' Health study and 37,725 male participants in the Health Professionals' Follow-up Study who were free of major chronic disease completed baseline semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaires in 1984 and 1986, respectively. Dietary information was updated in 1986, 1990, and 1994 for women and in 1990 and 1994 for men. Participants were followed up for incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer, or death through May 1998 (women) and January 1998 (men). Multivariable-adjusted relative risks were calculated with Cox proportional hazards analysis. Results We ascertained 9329 events (1964 cardiovascular, 6584 cancer, and 781 other deaths) in women and 4957 events (1670 cardiovascular diseases, 2500 cancers, and 787 other deaths) in men during follow-up. For men and women combined, participants in the highest quintile of total fruit and vegetable intake had a relative risk for major chronic disease of 0.95 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.89 to 1.01) times that of those in the lowest. Total fruit and vegetable intake was inversely associated with risk of cardiovascular disease but not with overall cancer incidence, with relative risk for an increment of five servings daily of 0.88 (95% CI = 0.81 to 0.95) for cardiovascular disease and 1.00 (95% CI = 0.95 to 1.05) for cancer. Of the food groups analyzed, green leafy vegetable intake showed the strongest inverse association with major chronic disease and cardiovascular disease. For an increment of one serving per day of green leafy vegetables, relative risks were 0.95 (95% CI = 0.92 to 0.99) for major chronic disease and 0.89 (95% CI = 0.83 to 0.96) for cardiovascular disease. Conclusions Increased fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with a modest although not statistically significant reduction in the development of major chronic disease. The benefits appeared to be primarily for cardiovascular disease and not for cancer.

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Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Risk of Major Chronic Disease

ARTICLES Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Risk of Major Chronic Disease

This paper presents simulations of the potential effect of COVID-19-related school closures on schooling and learning outcomes. It considers four scenarios-varying in both the duration of school cl...

Simulating the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 School Closures on Schooling and Learning Outcomes: A Set of Global Estimates

Folic acid: a public-health challenge

Using data from a computer-based formative feedback system, we compare learning gains in the 8 weeks of school closures related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland with learning gains in the 8 weeks before these school closures. The school performance in mathematics and language of N = 28,685 pupils is modelled in second-order piecewise latent growth models with strict measurement invariance for the two periods under investigation. While secondary school pupils remain largely unaffected by the school closures in terms of learning gains, for primary school pupils learning slows down and at the same time interindividual variance in learning gains increases. Distance learning arrangements seem an effective means to substitute for in-person learning, at least in an emergency situation, but not all pupils benefit to the same degree.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ijop.12728

Educational gains of in-person vs. distance learning in primary and secondary schools: A natural experiment during the COVID-19 pandemic school closures in Switzerland.

It is only recently that folate deficiency has been implicated in the development of cancer The mechanisms by which folate might protect against cancer are not clear but may relate to its role in DNA methylation and DNA synthesis All case-control, cohort and intervention trials reported in English, French, or German, on folate intake or blood levels in relation to the risk of colorectal, breast, and cervix cancer were reviewed Twenty case-control, and 12 nested case-control or cohort studies were identified The epidemiological studies consistently show an inverse association between intake and/or levels of folate and the frequency of colorectal carcinomas, and less clearly of adenomas Long-term use of supplements of folate seems to be of greater benefit than dietary intake The effect of folate seems to be modulated by alcohol, methionine, and MTHFR polymorphisms Results from animal studies suggest that folate supplementation might decrease or increase cancer risk depending on dosage and timing Recent studies also suggest an inverse association between folate intake and breast cancer among women who regularly consume alcohol Conversely, epidemiological evidence remains uncertain for the role of folate in cervical cancer prevention; the results of two intervention trials on rates of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia regression or progression were negative An effect of folate later in carcinogenesis is not supported by the few (nested) case-control studies on invasive cervical cancer Some of the conflicting results may be due to the fact that dietary intake or blood levels of folate do not accurately reflect folate concentrations in the cells of cancer origin Furthermore, only a few studies have taken into account the modulating effect of alcohol, methionine, and MTHFR polymorphisms in their analyses The observed inverse associations between folate and risk of cancer, on the other hand, may be confounded by various factors, especially by other potentially protective constituents in fruits and vegetables Ongoing intervention studies can strengthen evidence for causality by excluding such confounding, but the optimal dose, duration, and stage of carcinogenesis and the appropriate (genetically predisposed) study group for folate chemoprevention are not yet defined

https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/109538/1/smw-09779.pdf

Folate and the risk of colorectal, breast and cervix cancer: the epidemiological evidence.

An online survey of children in school grades 4–9 (mostly aged 10–15) was conducted in order to determine the prevalence of young carers in Switzerland using a 2‐stage stratified sampling approach. 4082 respondents were drawn from 230 schools. A total of 3991 respondents were included in the analysis and of these 307 (7.7%) were identified as young carers. The population estimate of prevalence was 7.9 per cent. This suggests that there are around 38 400 young carers in school grades 4–9 in Switzerland. Extrapolating to the 9–16 age group gives a figure of almost 51 500.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/chso.12296

Counting young carers in Switzerland – a study of prevalence

Ultrasound (US) has become a useful tool in the detection of early disease, differential diagnosis, guidance of treatment decisions and treatment monitoring of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In 2008, the Swiss Sonography in Arthritis and Rheumatism (SONAR) group was established to promote the use of US in inflammatory arthritis in clinical practice. A scoring system was developed and taught to a large number of Swiss rheumatologists who already contributed to the Swiss Clinical Quality Management (SCQM) database, a national patient register. This paper intends to give a Swiss consensus about best clinical practice recommendations for the use of US in RA on the basis of the current literature knowledge and experience with the Swiss SONAR score. Literature research was performed to collect data on current evidence. The results were discussed among specialists of the Swiss university centres and private practice, following a structured procedure. Musculoskelatal US was found to be very helpful in establishing the diagnosis and monitoring the evolution of RA, and to be a reliable tool if used by experienced examiners. It influences treatment decisions such as continuing, intensifying or stepping down therapy. The definite modalities of integrating US into the diagnosis and monitoring of RA treatments will be defined within a few years. There are, however, strong arguments to use US findings as of today in daily clinical care. Some practical recommendations about the use of US in RA, focusing on the diagnosis and the use of the SONAR score, are proposed.

https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:BIB_BC369C17E684.P001/REF.pdf

Recommendations for the use of ultrasound in rheumatoid arthritis: literature review and SONAR score experience

Formative assessments in schools have the potential to improve students' learning outcomes and self-regulation skills; they make learning visible and provide evidence-based guidelines for setting up and pursuing individual learning goals. With the recent introduction of the computer-based formative assessment systems for the educational contexts, there is much hope that such systems will provide teachers and students with valuable information to guide the learning process without taking much time from teaching and learning to spend on generating, evaluating and interpreting assessments. In this paper, we combine the theoretical and applied perspectives by addressing (a) the epistemological aspects of the formative assessment, with an emphasis on data collection, model building, and interpretation; (b) the methodological challenges of providing feedback in the context of instruction in the classroom; and (c) practical requirements for and related challenges of setting up and delivering the assessment system to a large number of students. In the epistemological section, we develop and explicate the interpretive argument of formative assessment and discuss the challenges of obtaining data with high validity. From the methodological perspective, we argue that computer-based formative assessment systems are generally superior to the traditional methods of providing feedback in the classroom, as they better allow supporting inferences of the interpretive argument. In the section on practical requirements, we first introduce an existing computer-based formative assessment system, as a case in point, for discussing related practical challenges. Topics covered in this section comprise the specifications of assessment content, the calibration and maintenance of the item bank, challenges concerning teachers' and students' assessment literacy, as well as ethical and data-protection requirements. We conclude with an outlook on possible future directions for computer-based formative assessment systems and the field in general.

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Urs Moser

Papers

Educational gains of in-person vs. distance learning in primary and secondary schools: A natural experiment during the COVID-19 pandemic school closures in Switzerland.

Folate and the risk of colorectal, breast and cervix cancer: the epidemiological evidence.

Counting young carers in Switzerland – a study of prevalence

Recommendations for the use of ultrasound in rheumatoid arthritis: literature review and SONAR score experience

On the Development of a Computer-Based Tool for Formative Student Assessment: Epistemological, Methodological, and Practical Issues.