‘Silence is the sentence’: adult learners’ experiences of a co-created curriculum constructed through free writing tasks

This paper outlines the pedagogical approaches taken on a University Access course, teaching predominantly mature students on a 12-week ‘inclusion in education’ module. The methods aimed to validate and develop literacy and academic skills for students undertaking undergraduate courses. Practice on the programme of study, replicated over three years, is informed by transformative learning theories. We outline how our developing praxis situates students’ self-concepts in confronting past biographical experiences of education and empowers them to improved literacy and purpose. We further propose that such andragogical approaches to teaching and learning can potentially serve as a model for improved literacy practices in post-compulsory education in England – a curriculum and qualification regime in radical need of overhaul and replacement.&nbsp

Cascading and Local-Field Effects in Non-Linear Optics Revisited; A Quantum-Field Picture Based on Exchange of Photons

The semi-classical theory of radiation-matter coupling misses local-field effects that may alter the pulse time-ordering and cascading that leads to the generation of new signals. These are then introduced macroscopically by solving Maxwell's equations. This procedure is convenient and intuitive but ad hoc. We show that both effects emerge naturally by including coupling to quantum modes of the radiation field in the vacuum state to second order. This approach is systematic and suggests a more general class of corrections that only arise in a QED framework. In the semi-classical theory, which only includes classical field modes, the susceptibility of a collection of $N$ non-interacting molecules is additive and scales as $N$. Second-order coupling to a vacuum mode generates an effective retarded interaction that leads to cascading and local field effects both of which scale as $N^2$

Substrate Binding Preferences and p\u3cem\u3eK\u3c/em\u3e\u3csub\u3ea\u3c/sub\u3e Determinations of a Nitrile Hydratase Model Complex: Variable Solvent Coordination to [(bmmp-TASN)Fe]OTf

The five-coordinate iron-dithiolate complex (N,N′-4,7-bis-(2′-methyl-2′-mercatopropyl)-1-thia-4,7-diazacyclononane)iron(III), [LFe]+, has been isolated as the triflate salt from reaction of the previously reported LFeCl with thallium triflate. Spectroscopic characterization confirms an S = 1/2 ground state in non-coordinating solvents with room temperature μeff = 1.78 μΒ and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) derived g-values of g1 = 2.04, g2 = 2.02 and g3 = 2.01. [LFe]+ binds a variety of coordinating solvents resulting in six-coordinate complexes [LFe-solvent]+. In acetonitrile the low-spin [LFe-NCMe]+ (g1 = 2.27, g2 = 2.18, and g3 = 1.98) is in equilibrium with [LFe]+ with a binding constant of Keq = 4.7 at room temperature. Binding of H2O, DMF, methanol, DMSO, and pyridine to [LFe]+ yields high-spin six-coordinate complexes with EPR spectra that display significant strain in the rhombic zero-field splitting term E/D. Addition of 1 equiv of triflic acid to the previously reported diiron species (LFe)2O results in the formation of [(LFe)2OH]OTf, which has been characterized by X-ray crystallography. The aqueous chemistry of [LFe]+ reveals three distinct species as a function of pH: [LFe-OH2]+, [(LFe)2OH]OTf, and (LFe)2O. The pKa values for [LFe-OH2]+ and [(LFe)2OH]OTf are 5.4 ± 0.1 and 6.52 ± 0.05, respectively

‘Silence is the sentence’: adult learners’ experiences of a co-created curriculum constructed through free writing tasks

This paper outlines the pedagogical approaches taken on a University Access course, teaching predominantly mature students on a 12-week ‘inclusion in education’ module. The methods aimed to validate and develop literacy and academic skills for students undertaking undergraduate courses. Practice on the programme of study, replicated over three years, is informed by transformative learning theories. We outline how our developing praxis situates students’ self-concepts in confronting past biographical experiences of education and empowers them to improved literacy and purpose. We further propose that such andragogical approaches to teaching and learning can potentially serve as a model for improved literacy practices in post-compulsory education in England – a curriculum and qualification regime in radical need of overhaul and replacement.

Late Miocene-Quaternary fault evolution and interaction in the southern California Inner Continental Borderland

Changing conditions along plate boundaries are thought to result in the reactivation of preexisting structures. The offshore southern California Borderland has undergone dramatic adjustments as conditions changed from subduction tectonics to transform tectonics, including major Miocene oblique extension, followed by transpressional fault reactivation. However, consensus is still lacking about stratigraphic age models, fault geometry, and slip history for the near-offshore area between southern Los Angeles and San Diego (California, USA). We interpret an extensive data set of seismic reflection, bathymetric, and stratigraphic data from that area to determine the three-dimensional geometry and kinematic evolution of the faults and folds and document how preexisting structures have changed their activity and type of slip through time. The resulting structural representation reveals a moderately landward-dipping San Mateo–Carlsbad fault that converges downward with the steeper, right-lateral Newport-Inglewood fault, forming a fault wedge affected by Quaternary contractional folding. This fault wedge deformed in transtension during late Miocene through Pliocene time. Subsequently, the San Mateo–Carlsbad fault underwent 0.6–1.0 km displacement, spatially varying between reverse right lateral and transtensional right lateral. In contrast, shallow parts of the previously identified gently dipping Oceanside detachment and the faults above it appear to have been inactive since the early Pliocene. These observations, together with new and revised geometric representations of additional steeper faults, and the evidence for a pervasive strike-slip component on these nearshore faults, suggest a need to revise the earthquake hazard estimates for the coastal region

Glen Torridon Mineralogy and the Sedimentary History of the Clay Mineral Bearing Unit

Clay minerals are common in ancient terrains on Mars and their presence at the surface alludes to aqueous processes in the Noachian to Early Hesperian (>3.5 Ga). Gale crater was selected as Curiositys landing site largely because of the identification of clay mineral rich strata from orbit. On Earth, the types of clay minerals (i.e., smectites) identified in Gale crater are typically juvenile weathering products that ultimately record the interaction between primary igneous minerals with the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. Trioctahedral and dioctahedral smectite were identified by Curiosity in units stratigraphically below the Clay Mineral-Bearing Unit (CBU) identified from orbit. Compositional and sedimentological data suggest the smectite formed via authigenesis in a lake environment and may have been altered during early diagenesis. The CBU is stratigraphically equivalent to a hematite-rich unit to the north and stratigraphically underlies sulfate-rich units to the south, suggesting a dynamic environment and evolving history of water in the ancient Gale crater lake. Targeting these clay mineral rich areas on Mars with rover missions provides an opportunity to explore the aqueous and sedimentary history of the planet

Vision and Foraging in Cormorants: More like Herons than Hawks?

Background Great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo L.) show the highest known foraging yield for a marine predator and they are often perceived to be in conflict with human economic interests. They are generally regarded as visually-guided, pursuit-dive foragers, so it would be expected that cormorants have excellent vision much like aerial predators, such as hawks which detect and pursue prey from a distance. Indeed cormorant eyes appear to show some specific adaptations to the amphibious life style. They are reported to have a highly pliable lens and powerful intraocular muscles which are thought to accommodate for the loss of corneal refractive power that accompanies immersion and ensures a well focussed image on the retina. However, nothing is known of the visual performance of these birds and how this might influence their prey capture technique. Methodology/Principal Findings We measured the aquatic visual acuity of great cormorants under a range of viewing conditions (illuminance, target contrast, viewing distance) and found it to be unexpectedly poor. Cormorant visual acuity under a range of viewing conditions is in fact comparable to unaided humans under water, and very inferior to that of aerial predators. We present a prey detectability model based upon the known acuity of cormorants at different illuminances, target contrasts and viewing distances. This shows that cormorants are able to detect individual prey only at close range (less than 1 m). Conclusions/Significance We conclude that cormorants are not the aquatic equivalent of hawks. Their efficient hunting involves the use of specialised foraging techniques which employ brief short-distance pursuit and/or rapid neck extension to capture prey that is visually detected or flushed only at short range. This technique appears to be driven proximately by the cormorant's limited visual capacities, and is analogous to the foraging techniques employed by herons

Comparative Genome-Wide Screening Identifies a Conserved Doxorubicin Repair Network That Is Diploid Specific in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The chemotherapeutic doxorubicin (DOX) induces DNA double-strand break (DSB) damage. In order to identify conserved genes that mediate DOX resistance, we screened the Saccharomyces cerevisiae diploid deletion collection and identified 376 deletion strains in which exposure to DOX was lethal or severely reduced growth fitness. This diploid screen identified 5-fold more DOX resistance genes than a comparable screen using the isogenic haploid derivative. Since DSB damage is repaired primarily by homologous recombination in yeast, and haploid cells lack an available DNA homolog in G1 and early S phase, this suggests that our diploid screen may have detected the loss of repair functions in G1 or early S phase prior to complete DNA replication. To test this, we compared the relative DOX sensitivity of 30 diploid deletion mutants identified under our screening conditions to their isogenic haploid counterpart, most of which (n = 26) were not detected in the haploid screen. For six mutants (bem1Δ, ctf4Δ, ctk1Δ, hfi1Δ,nup133Δ, tho2Δ) DOX-induced lethality was absent or greatly reduced in the haploid as compared to the isogenic diploid derivative. Moreover, unlike WT, all six diploid mutants displayed severe G1/S phase cell cycle progression defects when exposed to DOX and some were significantly enhanced (ctk1Δ and hfi1Δ) or deficient (tho2Δ) for recombination. Using these and other “THO2-like” hypo-recombinogenic, diploid-specific DOX sensitive mutants (mft1Δ, thp1Δ, thp2Δ) we utilized known genetic/proteomic interactions to construct an interactive functional genomic network which predicted additional DOX resistance genes not detected in the primary screen. Most (76%) of the DOX resistance genes detected in this diploid yeast screen are evolutionarily conserved suggesting the human orthologs are candidates for mediating DOX resistance by impacting on checkpoint and recombination functions in G1 and/or early S phases

A prospective cohort study assessing clinical referral management & workforce allocation within a UK regional medical genetics service

Abstract Ensuring patient access to genomic information in the face of increasing demand requires clinicians to develop innovative ways of working. This paper presents the first empirical prospective observational cohort study of UK multi-disciplinary genetic service delivery. It describes and explores collaborative working practices including the utilisation and role of clinical geneticists and non-medical genetic counsellors. Six hundred and fifty new patients referred to a regional genetics service were tracked through 850 clinical contacts until discharge. Referral decisions regarding allocation of lead health professional assigned to the case were monitored, including the use of initial clinical contact guidelines. Significant differences were found in the cases led by genetic counsellors and those led by clinical geneticists. Around a sixth, 16.8% (109/650) of referrals were dealt with by a letter back to the referrer or re-directed to another service provider and 14.8% (80/541) of the remaining patients chose not to schedule an appointment. Of the remaining 461 patients, genetic counsellors were allocated as lead health professional for 46.2% (213/461). A further 61 patients did not attend. Of those who did, 86% (345/400) were discharged after one or two appointments. Genetic counsellors contributed to 95% (784/825) of total patient contacts. They provided 93.7% (395/432) of initial contacts and 26.8% (106/395) of patients were discharged at that point. The information from this study informed a planned service re-design. More research is needed to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of different models of collaborative multi-disciplinary working within genetics services. Keywords (MeSH terms) Genetic Services, Genetic Counseling, Interdisciplinary Communication, Cohort Studies, Delivery of Healthcare, Referral and Consultation

Methanol as hydrogen source: transfer hydrogenation of aromatic aldehydes with a rhodacycle

A cyclometalated rhodium complex has been shown to perform highly selective and efficient reduction of aldehydes, deriving the hydrogen from methanol. With methanol as both the solvent and hydrogen donor under mild conditions and an open atmosphere, a wide range of aromatic aldehydes were reduced to the corresponding alcohols, without affecting other functional groups