This paper reports the methods and preliminary findings of Germina, an ongoing cohort study to identify biomarkers and trajectories of executive functions and language development in the first 3 years of life. 557 mother-infant dyads (mean age of mothers 33.7 years, 65.2% white, 48.7% male infants) have undergone baseline and are currently collecting data for other timepoints. A linear regression was used to predict baseline Bayley-III using scores derived from data-driven sparse partial least squares utilizing a multiple holdout framework of 15 domains. Significant associations were found between socioeconomic/demographic characteristics (B = 0.29), epigenetics (B = 0.11), EEG theta (B = 0.14) and beta activity (B = 0.11), and microbiome functional pathways (B = 0.08) domains, and infant development measured by the Bayley-III at T1, suggesting potential interventions to prevent impairments.

The Fontan operation, although part of a life-saving surgical strategy, manifests a variety of end-organ complications and unique morbidities that are being recognised with increasing frequency as patients survive into their second and third decades of life and beyond. Liver fibrosis, protein-losing enteropathy and plastic bronchitis are consequences of a complex physiology involving circulatory insufficiency, inflammation and lymphatic derangement. These conditions are manifest in a chronic, indolent state. Management strategies are emerging, which shed some light on the origins of these complications. A better characterisation of the end-organ consequences of the Fontan circulation is necessary, which can then allow for development of specific methods for treatment. Ideally, the goal is to establish systematic strategies that might reduce or eliminate the development of these potentially life-threatening challenges.

We describe an outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa respiratory tract infections related to intrinsically contaminated ultrasound gel used for intraoperative transesophageal echocardiograms in cardiovascular surgery patients. This investigation led to a product safety alert by the Food and Drug Administration and the development of guidelines for appropriate use of ultrasound gel.

Elizabeth Russo here explores the analogies between Brecht's spectator-centred approach to theatre and a student-centred approach to education, comparing the symbiosis achieved in his work between the ‘Magistral’ approach common to top-down education and the open-ended ‘Socratic’ dialogue. She suggests that even the lehrstücke, often assumed to be his most dogmatic pieces, in fact offer choices and question the spectator's intellect, and compares Brecht's techniques with the concept of the ‘zone of proximal development’ in educational theory – the gap distance between a child's actual and potential level of development, and between his/her individual skills and functioning within a social group. Elizabeth Russo has worked with children in Chicago under the volunteer programme of the Inner-City Teaching Corps, and is currently teaching at St Mary of the Angels School in London. She is a history graduate of Villanova University, studied in the Graduate School of Education at Loyola University, Chicago, and has an MA in Theatre Education from Goldsmiths College, University of London.