Shaping Society, Technology and Learning Identity

First paragraph: Since the 1980s the educational uses of new information and communication technologies and digital media have been expanding. Whether in the form of computers in the classroom, as ‘educational technologies' designed for explicit pedagogic purposes, or in the form of everyday new media being aligned with educational intentions, practices and activities, new technologies and media have become, it seems, almost naturalized as a common-sense feature of educational life. Schools are now seemingly built around a complex apparatus of electronic screens and surfaces, technical infrastructure, computing hardware, software and code, all hardwired to electronic communication networks

Relevant Assay to Study the Adhesion of Plasmodium falciparum-Infected Erythrocytes to the Placental Epithelium

In placental malaria, Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes adhere to the apical plasma membrane of the placental epithelium, triggering an impairment of placental function detrimental to the fetus. The design of anti-adhesion intervention strategies requires a detailed understanding of the mechanisms involved. However, most adhesion assays lack in vivo relevance and are hardly quantitative. Here, we describe a flow cytometry-based adhesion assay that is fully relevant by using apical epithelial plasma membrane vesicles as the adhesion matrix, and being applicable to infected erythrocytes directly isolated from patients. Adhesion is measured both as the percentage of pathogens bound to epithelial membrane vesicles as well as the mean number of vesicles bound per infected erythrocytes. We show that adhesins alternative to those currently identified could be involved. This demonstrates the power of this assay to advance our understanding of epithelial adhesion of infected erythrocytes and in the design of intervention strategies