Developing through mentoring or being mentored: ALDinHE’s new mentoring scheme and certified mentor recognition

ALDinHE is launching its new mentoring scheme and mentorship recognition to acknowledge, promote and recognise the importance of mentoring for learning development as a field that does not offer an official route into the profession. This Professional Development session introduced the mentoring scheme, explaining how to get involved, what support mentors and mentees can receive from ALDinHE and what benefits both sides can get from mentoring or being mentored. If you’re new to learning development or keen to develop more experience in a specific area with the help of a mentor, the mentoring scheme will offer you a brilliant framework to broaden your expertise. If you’re an experienced learning developer or have specific expertise you could share, find out how you could become recognised as a Certified Mentor (CeM) in learning development by ALDinHE

Mentoring in learning development

Learning Development is still a relatively young field (Syska and Buckley, 2022), and despite a growing body of research, it remains strongly practice-oriented. This means that experience, in this case of individual Learning Developers, takes an even more central place than it does in more established fields, and sharing this experience through mentoring takes on a central role. This is why the mentoring working group has developed a Learning Development focused ALDinHE Mentoring Scheme, together with a Certified Mentor recognition that helps experienced mentors be recognised for their contribution to growing and sharing LD knowledge. This mini keynote briefly introduced the Mentoring Scheme and the CeM recognition before exploring the role mentoring can play in the professional development of Learning Developers with the audience. The questions we asked were: What benefits would you expect for mentees? What benefits would you expect for mentors? What kind of experience can be best shared through mentoring

The characteristics of sexual abuse in sport: A multidimensional scaling analysis of events described in media reports

Most research on sexual abuse has been conducted within family settings (Fergusson & Mullen, 1999). In recent years, following several high profile convictions and scandals, research into sexual abuse has also encompassed institutional and community settings such as sport and the church (Gallagher, 2000; Wolfe et al., 2003). Research into sexual abuse in sport, for example, began with both prevalence studies (Kirby & Greaves, 1996; Leahy, Pretty & Tenenbaum, 2002) and qualitative analyses of the processes and experiences of athlete sexual abuse (Brackenridge, 1997; Cense & Brackenridge, 2001, Toftegaard Nielsen, 2001). From such work, descriptions of the modus operandi of abusers in sport, and the experiences and consequences for athlete victims, have been provided, informing both abuse prevention work and coach education. To date, however, no study has provided empirical support for multiple associations or identified patterns of sex offending in sport in ways that might allow comparisons with research-generated models of offending outside sport. This paper reports on an analysis of 159 cases of criminally defined sexual abuse, reported in the print media over a period of 15 years. The main aim of the study was to identify the nature of sex offending in sport focusing on the methods and locations of offences. The data were analysed using multidimensional scaling (MDS), as a data reduction method, in order to identify the underlying themes within the abuse and explore the inter-relationships of behaviour, victim and context variables. The findings indicate that there are specific themes that can be identified within the perpetrator strategies that include ‘intimate’, ‘aggressive’, and ‘’dominant’ modes of interaction. The same patterns that are described here within the specific context of sport are consistent with themes that emerge from similar behavioural analyses of rapists (Canter & Heritage, 1990; Bishopp, 2003) and child molester groups (Canter, Hughes & Kirby, 1998). These patterns show a correspondence to a broader behavioural model – the interpersonal circumplex (e.g., Leary 1957). Implications for accreditation and continuing professional education of sport psychologists are noted

Comparison of two linearization schemes for the nonlinear bending problem of a beam pinned at both ends

The nonlinear bending problem of a constant cross-section simply supported beam pinned at both ends and subject to a uniformly distributed load qðxÞ is analyzed in detail. The numerical integration of the two-point boundary value problem (BVP) derived for the nonlinear Timoshenko beam is tackled through two different linearization schemes, the multi-step transversal linearization (MTrL) and the multi-step tangential linearization (MTnL), proposed by Viswanath and Roy (2007). The fundamentals of these linearization techniques are to replace the nonlinear part of the governing ODEs through a set of conditionally linearized ODE systems at the nodal grid points along the neutral axis, ensuring the intersection between the solution manifolds (transversally in the MTrL and tangentially in the MTnL). In this paper, the solution values are determined at grid points by means of a centered finite differences method with multipoint linear constraints (Keller, 1969), and a simple iterative strategy. The analytical solution for this kind of bending problem, including the extensional effects, can be worked out by integration of the governing two-point BVP equations (Monleón et al., 2008). Finally, the comparison of analytical and numerical results shows the better ability of MTnL with the proposed iterative strategy to reproduce the theoretical behavior of the beam for each load step, because the restraint of equating derivatives in MTnL leads to further closeness between solution paths of the governing ODEs and the linearized ones, in comparison with MTrL. This result is opposed to the conclusion reached in Viswanath and Roy (2007), where the relative errors produced by MTrL are said to be smaller than the MTnL ones for the simply supported beam and the tip-loaded cantilever beam problems. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Merli Gisbert, R.; Lazaro, C.; Monleón Cremades, S.; Domingo Cabo, A. (2010). Comparison of two linearization schemes for the nonlinear bending problem of a beam pinned at both ends. International Journal of Solids and Structures. 47(6):865-874. doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2009.12.001S86587447

Loss of ancestral function in duckweed roots is accompanied by progressive anatomical reduction and a re-distribution of nutrient transporters

Organ loss occurs frequently during plant and animal evolution. Sometimes, non-functional organs are retained through evolution. Vestigial organs are defined as genetically determined structures that have lost their ancestral (or salient) function. Duckweeds, an aquatic monocot family, exhibit both these characteristics. They possess a uniquely simple body plan, variably across five genera, two of which are rootless. Due to the existence of closely related species with a wide diversity in rooting strategies, duckweed roots represent a powerful system for investigating vestigiality. To explore this, we employed a panel of physiological, ionomic, and transcriptomic analyses, with the main goal of elucidating the extent of vestigiality in duckweed roots. We uncovered a progressive reduction in root anatomy as genera diverge and revealed that the root has lost its salient ancestral function as an organ required for supplying nutrients to the plant. Accompanying this, nutrient transporter expression patterns have lost the stereotypical root biased localization observed inother plant species. While other examples of organ loss such as limbs in reptiles or eyes in cavefish frequently display a binary of presence/absence, duckweeds provide a unique snapshot of an organ with varying degrees of vestigialization in closely related neighbors and thus provide a unique resource for exploration of how organs behave at different stages along the process of loss. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Probing the roles of LRR RLK genes in Arabidopsis thaliana roots using a custom T-DNA insertion set

Leucine-rich repeat receptor-like protein kinases (LRR RLKs) represent the largest group of Arabidopsis RLKs with approximately 235 members. A minority of these LRR RLKs have been assigned to diverse roles in development, pathogen resistance and hormone perception. Using a reverse genetics approach, a collection of homozygous T-DNA insertion lines for 69 root expressed LRR RLK genes was screened for root developmental defects and altered response after exposure to environmental, hormonal/chemical and abiotic stress. The obtained data demonstrate that LRR RLKs play a role in a wide variety of signal transduction pathways related to hormone and abiotic stress responses. The described collection of T-DNA insertion mutants provides a valuable tool for future research into the function of LRR RLK genes

Diffusible repression of cytokinin signalling produces endodermal symmetry and passage cells.

In vascular plants, the root endodermis surrounds the central vasculature as a protective sheath that is analogous to the polarized epithelium in animals, and contains ring-shaped Casparian strips that restrict diffusion. After an initial lag phase, individual endodermal cells suberize in an apparently random fashion to produce 'patchy' suberization that eventually generates a zone of continuous suberin deposition. Casparian strips and suberin lamellae affect paracellular and transcellular transport, respectively. Most angiosperms maintain some isolated cells in an unsuberized state as so-called 'passage cells', which have previously been suggested to enable uptake across an otherwise-impermeable endodermal barrier. Here we demonstrate that these passage cells are late emanations of a meristematic patterning process that reads out the underlying non-radial symmetry of the vasculature. This process is mediated by the non-cell-autonomous repression of cytokinin signalling in the root meristem, and leads to distinct phloem- and xylem-pole-associated endodermal cells. The latter cells can resist abscisic acid-dependent suberization to produce passage cells. Our data further demonstrate that, during meristematic patterning, xylem-pole-associated endodermal cells can dynamically alter passage-cell numbers in response to nutrient status, and that passage cells express transporters and locally affect the expression of transporters in adjacent cortical cells