Energy Exchange: The Urgency to Move from Self-Care to Community-Care in Student Affairs

Self-care is a trending topic and buzzword in the field of student affairs, which forces professionals to be responsible for their own healing and assumes that they have the time and resources to heal. Divisions and departments encourage their employees to practice self-care with the expectation that their employees will return and continue their work. The author will explore the reasons that student affairs professionals seek care and provide a lens that can be used to transform spaces in higher education so that they become places of healing

Addressing Hxstorical Amnesia: Proactively Combating Hxstorical Amnesia as a Means of Healing in Higher Education

In a political context characterized by the desire to “Make America Great Again,” the romanticization of the past and the erasure of narratives of marginalized communities affect how students experience and navigate higher education. Institutions of higher education were built on systems of colonization and imperialism and continue to benefit from the legacy of domination and subordination; this hxstory shapes student learning. The authors introduce hxstorical amnesia, its effects on student development, and methods of actively combating hxstorical amnesia in higher education. The authors explore ways to heal from hxstorical amnesia through community-care, cogenerative dialogues, and Sentipensante Pedagogy. By discussing the contemporary impacts of hxstorical amnesia on higher education and student learning, the authors hope to (re)write the narrative of higher education to underline the importance of the hxstories of marginalized communities

Breast pain

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of breast pain

Translational control of Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors, HER2 and HER4 in response to cellular stresses in breast cancer cells

The human epidermal growth factors (EGFR and HER2-4) are tyrosine kinase cell surface receptors that play key roles in cell signalling, growth, and differentiation. However, HER2 and HER4 are commonly overexpressed in breast cancer contributing to breast cancer aggressiveness. Translational mechanisms such as internal ribosome entry sites (IRESs) and upstream opening reading frames (uORFs) can mediate translation of specific mRNA under cell stress conditions when global translation is inhibited. Cancer cells can be exposed to many cell stress conditions such as hypoxia and nutrient starvation, and such translational control mechanisms can contribute to overexpression of mRNAs. EGFR mRNA contains an IRES in the 5’ untranslated region (5’ UTR) that maintains expression of a firefly luciferase reporter in response to stress conditions such as hypoxia. However, it is not known if the 5’ UTRs of the other HER family members (HER 2-4) contain an IRES. Additionally, HER2 mRNA contains a repressive uORF in the 5’ UTR and a translational derepression element (TDE) in the 3’ UTR. However, it has not been investigated whether HER2 5’ UTR can mediate an increase in translation in response to glutamine or glucose starvation as seen for ATF4 and GCN4 mRNA. To screen for IRES activity in HER2 or HER4 5’ UTRs, bicistronic luciferase constructs were created that contained the 5’ UTR of HER2 or HER4 between two luciferase reporters. In contrast to EGFR 5’ UTR, there was no evidence of IRES activity in the 5’ UTRs of HER2 and HER4 in response to endoplasmic reticulum stress, oxidative stress, low serum conditions, a hypoxia mimic, genotoxic stress, confluence stress, glutamine starvation and glucose starvation in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Additionally, monocistronic constructs were created that contained the 5’ UTRs of HER2 or HER4 upstream to a single firefly luciferase reporter. In monocistronic constructs, HER2 and HER4 5’ UTRs did not increase translation in response to glutamine or glucose starvation in MCF-7 cells. Finally, in contrast to a previous publication, the TDE in HER2 3’ UTR did not derepress translation under non-stressed conditions or additionally in response to glutamine or glucose starvation. The work in this thesis investigated the translational control of important oncogenes in stress conditions that are biologically relevant to cancer. Despite not identifying any translational control mechanisms in HER2 or HER4 5’ UTRs, the work in this thesis provides a promising approach for characterising the translational control of other important oncogenes that could provide potential therapeutic targets for cancer therapy in the future

Educators perceptions of implementing guidelines on HIV/AIDS interventions in the Department of Educations Port Elizabeth District

The development and implementation of policy guidelines remains a contentious issue. Over the past few years, difficulty still exists in implementing the Department of Education (DoE) 1999, National Education Policy Act, 1996 (No. 27 of 1996): National Policy on HIV/AIDS for learners and educators in public schools, and students and educators in further education and training institutions [here after referred to as DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999)], while at the same time trying to transform the entire education system. This research explored the perceptions of educators in the Port Elizabeth District regarding the implementation of DoE HIV/AIDS (1999) policy guidelines. A secondary objective was to provide a reflection of how the implementation of guidelines on HIV/AIDS interventions within the schools of the Port Elizabeth District either conformed to or deviated from the guidelines outlined in the DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999). The study was executed within the paradigm of qualitative research and employed an exploratory, descriptive and contextual design. The researcher conducted a pilot study to enhance the trustworthiness of the study. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit research participants, consisting of 12 educators from 10 schools in the Port Elizabeth District where HIV/AIDS interventions were being implemented. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviewing and analysed using Tesch’s (1990) in De Vos, Strydom, Fouché & Delport (2005:340-341) framework for analysis of qualitative data. Guba’s model (in Krefting, 1991) was used to ensure the trustworthiness of the study. Three themes emerged from the results of the in-depth semi-structured interviews: (1) Educators’ views on the DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999) guidelines and its implementation (2) Gaps or shortcomings in implementation of the DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999) and (3) Educator suggestions’ to inform implementation of the DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999) in schools. The results from the study indicate that there is inconsistency in the policy implementation approach employed by DoE district level representatives and there is a need for knowledge and capacity development at district and school level. The value of the study is outlined as well as recommendations

La evolución del sistema de reparación a las víctimas de tortura en el ámbito de la corte interamericana de derechos humanos

[ES] Investigación se sustenta en los casos de tortura conocidos por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, y a partir de estos caso se analiza cómo vienen evolucionando las medidas de reparación en las sentencias emitidas por este Tribunal. Se analiza cómo este órgano al dictar la responsabilidad internacional del Estado aborda la obligación de reparar, buscando la compresión sobre las consecuencias de las variadas medidas de reparación. Se realiza un análisis descriptivo y crítico-analítico de las sentencias con el foco del estudio únicamente en la figura penal de la tortura

Educators perceptions of implementing guidelines on HIV/AIDS interventions in the Department of Educations Port Elizabeth District

The development and implementation of policy guidelines remains a contentious issue. Over the past few years, difficulty still exists in implementing the Department of Education (DoE) 1999, National Education Policy Act, 1996 (No. 27 of 1996): National Policy on HIV/AIDS for learners and educators in public schools, and students and educators in further education and training institutions [here after referred to as DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999)], while at the same time trying to transform the entire education system. This research explored the perceptions of educators in the Port Elizabeth District regarding the implementation of DoE HIV/AIDS (1999) policy guidelines. A secondary objective was to provide a reflection of how the implementation of guidelines on HIV/AIDS interventions within the schools of the Port Elizabeth District either conformed to or deviated from the guidelines outlined in the DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999). The study was executed within the paradigm of qualitative research and employed an exploratory, descriptive and contextual design. The researcher conducted a pilot study to enhance the trustworthiness of the study. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit research participants, consisting of 12 educators from 10 schools in the Port Elizabeth District where HIV/AIDS interventions were being implemented. Data was gathered through semi-structured interviewing and analysed using Tesch’s (1990) in De Vos, Strydom, Fouché & Delport (2005:340-341) framework for analysis of qualitative data. Guba’s model (in Krefting, 1991) was used to ensure the trustworthiness of the study. Three themes emerged from the results of the in-depth semi-structured interviews: (1) Educators’ views on the DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999) guidelines and its implementation (2) Gaps or shortcomings in implementation of the DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999) and (3) Educator suggestions’ to inform implementation of the DoE HIV/AIDS policy (1999) in schools. The results from the study indicate that there is inconsistency in the policy implementation approach employed by DoE district level representatives and there is a need for knowledge and capacity development at district and school level. The value of the study is outlined as well as recommendations