Preparing to Teach: Redeeming the Potentialities of the Present Through Conversations of Practice

A prospective teacher and a teacher educator enter into a yearlong conversation seeking greater curricular physicality and materiality within its enactment. Dewey\u27s (1938) temporal educative relation of teaching and learning as an ever-present process is helpful, asking both parties to dwell mindfully at the intersections of teaching/learning situations and interactions. Attention turns to the lived curricular features and consequences of preparing teachers to teach as an ever-present process. The role and place of self-other negotiation is illuminated within curricular enactment, giving expression to teaching/learning as an ever-present process. Pedagogical significances are redeemed through greater teaching mindfulness of the temporality at play within the present

Capturing the Year 2009: writings from the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific

Capturing the Year 2009 represents the fourth time the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific has published an annual selection of the best journalism of its scholars. Their expertise ranges from archaeology, linguistics and history to economics, political science and security policy. Selected from more than 160 pieces of writing, the articles in Capturing analyse big issues of the past year - the Global Financial Crisis; elections in India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Afghanistan; political developments in Thailand, Burma and Fiji; climate change negotiations; release of a new Defence White Paper and the election of a new US president. They also reflect on topics as diverse as democracy, ethics and human rights, Asian language study and teaching, and natural resources. Eclectic and penetrating, Capturing shows that fine scholars can - and do - write for wide audiences.Copyright Information: Author owns the copyright.Permission granted to archive and make publicly available

Politics, policy and participation: business-government relations in Indonesia

Questions about state-society relations currently attract great interest in political science. In the case of Indonesia, much emphasis has been given to the strength of the state and its relative autonomy from societal forces in recent years. This study deals with the nature of the links between business, as one segment of society, and the state in contemporary Indonesia. It is an enquiry about the extent to which societal actors are involved in the shaping of public policy. Dissatisfaction with existing scholarly accounts of the nature of the Indonesian polity was an important stimulus for this research. Insufficient attention has hitherto been paid to questions about societal constraints upon state actors in the formation of policy. What is the scope for various types of societal groups to influence policy outcomes in areas of special concern to them? To the extent that it does take place, how is communication between policy-makers and relevant sections of society organised? Three case studies are used to pursue these themes. Their purpose is to illuminate the processes by which policy is formed in situations where the interests of the relevant sections of the state appaaratus diverge from those of industry groups. The cases used are from the textile, pharmaceutical and insurance industries. There are two main strands to the thesis; one empirical and the other theoretical. The first strand involves an argument about political and economic change in Indonesia, and the increasing complexity of the relations between state and society there. The second is an argument that existing theoretical frameworks for the interpretation of Indonesian politics are excessively state-centred. In this context Indonesian politics and the attaching academic debates take on a wider significance; for one of the main currents in political science today is the proposition that insufficient attention has been accorded to the state. Far from scholarship on Indonesia being insufficiently attentive to the state, precisely the opposite has been the case

Temporal trends and risk factors for readmission for infections, gastrointestinal and immobility complications after an incident hospitalisation for stroke in Scotland between 1997 and 2005

Background: Improvements in stroke management have led to increases in the numbers of stroke survivors over the last decade and there has been a corresponding increase of hospital readmissions after an initial stroke hospitalisation. The aim of this study was to examine the one year risk of having a readmission due to infective, gastrointestinal or immobility (IGI) complications and to identify temporal trends and any risk factors.<p></p> Methods: Using a cohort of first hospitalised for stroke patients who were discharged alive, time to first event (readmission for IGI complications or death) within 1 year was analysed in a competing risks framework using cumulative incidence methods. Regression on the cumulative incidence function was used to model the risks of having an outcome using the covariates age, sex, socioeconomic status, comorbidity, discharge destination and length of hospital stay.<p></p> Results: There were a total of 51,182 patients discharged alive after an incident stroke hospitalisation in Scotland between 1997–2005, and 7,747 (15.1%) were readmitted for IGI complications within a year of the discharge. Comparing incident stroke hospitalisations in 2005 with 1997, the adjusted risk of IGI readmission did not increase (HR = 1.00 95% CI (0.90, 1.11). However, there was a higher risk of IGI readmission with increasing levels of deprivation (most deprived fifth vs. least deprived fifth HR = 1.16 (1.08, 1.26).<p></p> Conclusions: Approximately 15 in 100 patients discharged alive after an incident hospitalisation for stroke in Scotland between 1997 and 2005 went on to have an IGI readmission within one year. The proportion of readmissions did not change over the study period but those living in deprived areas had an increased risk

Phosphorylation of ERK in neurokinin 1 receptor-expressing neurons in laminae III and IV of the rat spinal dorsal horn following noxious stimulation

BACKGROUND: There is a population of large neurons with cell bodies in laminae III and IV of the spinal dorsal horn which express the neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1r) and have dendrites that enter the superficial laminae. Although it has been shown that these are all projection neurons and that they are innervated by substance P-containing (nociceptive) primary afferents, we know little about their responses to noxious stimuli. In this study we have looked for phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) in these neurons in response to different types of noxious stimulus applied to one hindlimb of anaesthetised rats. The stimuli were mechanical (repeated pinching), thermal (immersion in water at 52°C) or chemical (injection of 2% formaldehyde). RESULTS: Five minutes after each type of stimulus we observed numerous cells with phosphorylated ERK (pERK) in laminae I and IIo, together with scattered positive cells in deeper laminae. We found that virtually all of the lamina III/IV NK1r-immunoreactive neurons contained pERK after each of these stimuli and that in the great majority of cases there was internalisation of the NK1r on the dorsal dendrites of these cells. In addition, we also saw neurons in lamina III that were pERK-positive but lacked the NK1r, and these were particularly evident in animals that had had the pinch stimulus. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that lamina III/IV NK1r-immunoreactive neurons show receptor internalisation and ERK phosphorylation after mechanical, thermal or chemical noxious stimuli

The oxytocin receptor antagonist, Atosiban, activates pro-inflammatory pathways in human amnion via Gαi signalling

Oxytocin (OT) plays an important role in the onset of human labour by stimulating uterine contractions and promoting prostaglandin/inflammatory cytokine synthesis in amnion via oxytocin receptor (OTR) coupling. The OTR-antagonist, Atosiban, is widely used as a tocolytic for the management of acute preterm labour. We found that in primary human amniocytes, Atosiban (10 μM) signals via PTX-sensitive Gαi to activate transcription factor NF-κB p65, ERK1/2, and p38 which subsequently drives upregulation of the prostaglandin synthesis enzymes, COX-2 and phospho-cPLA2 and excretion of prostaglandins (PGE2) (n = 6; p < 0.05, ANOVA). Moreover, Atosiban treatment increased expression and excretion of the inflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and CCL5. We also showed that OT-simulated activation of NF-κB, ERK1/2, and p38 and subsequent prostaglandin and inflammatory cytokine synthesis is via Gαi−2 and Gαi−3 but not Gαq, and is not inhibited by Atosiban. Activation or exacerbation of inflammation is not a desirable effect of tocolytics. Therefore therapeutic modulation of the OT/OTR system for clinical management of term/preterm labour should consider the effects of differential G-protein coupling of the OTR and the role of OT or selective OTR agonists/antagonists in activating proinflammatory pathways