The Iron Horse

Verse in praise of trains; Printed to commemorate the satisfactory arrangement arrive at between the Directors of the Midland Railway Company and the Engine Drivers and Firemen in their employhttps://egrove.olemiss.edu/kgbsides_uk/1067/thumbnail.jp

E-Learning course design intensives: disrupting the norms of curriculum design

At one level, this paper is about a type of intervention to support e-learning, the Course Design Intensives (CDIs) at Oxford Brookes University. It might also be read at another level, as a recommendation to transform ‘business as usual’ in the curriculum design process in our institutions. The paper focuses on drawing out some lessons from five years of implementing and evaluating CDIs at Oxford Brookes University, relates the CDIs to similar interventions in two other UK universities, and discusses the ‘transferability’ of the format

Institutional strategies for supporting learners in a digital age

This study examined the policies and practices in nine UK institutions of further or higher education that had made a commitment to supporting students to develop their capabilities to learn in the digital age. Data were collected over a six-month period through multiple interactions with case study sites. Analysis of these data captures institutional practices and the results are mapped onto a developmental framework for effective learning in a digital age. Recommendations are made to institutions considering how best to support their learners, including the need to: specify digital literacies in learning and teaching strategies; prepare students for their experience of learning with technology; reconfigure campus spaces to enhance connectivity and support a range of social learning activities; and create a culture of engaging with students to inform decision-making. These institutional practices aim to support learners to make use of their digital skills and practices. The ultimate aim is to graduate students who can creatively appropriate technology to suit their own learning environment and needs

Vaccinia virus immune evasion: mechanisms, virulence and immunogenicity

Virus infection of mammalian cells is sensed by pattern recognition receptors and leads to an innate immune response that restricts virus replication and induces adaptive immunity. In response, viruses have evolved many countermeasures that enable them to replicate and be transmitted to new hosts, despite the host innate immune response. Poxviruses, such as vaccinia virus (VACV), have large DNA genomes and encode many proteins that are dedicated to host immune evasion. Some of these proteins are secreted from the infected cell, where they bind and neutralize complement factors, interferons, cytokines and chemokines. Other VACV proteins function inside cells to inhibit apoptosis or signalling pathways that lead to the production of interferons and pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. In this review, these VACV immunomodulatory proteins are described and the potential to create more immunogenic VACV strains by manipulation of the gene encoding these proteins is discussed