Management problems at underachieving township secondary schools in the Free State

Principals of secondary schools in townships are experiencing increasing management problems. The situation is exacerbated by the rapid changes taking place in education and the promotion of inexperienced teachers to the position of principal. This article attempts to identify the management problems experienced by principals of township secondary schools which obtained a pass rate of 40% or less for more than three years prior to 2002. The study found that these principals experience innumerable problems which have a negative influence on academic achievement and which must be resolved

Management problems at underachieving township secondary schools in the Free State

Principals of secondary schools in townships are experiencing increasing management problems. The situation is exacerbated by the rapid changes taking place in education and the promotion of inexperienced teachers to the position of principal. This article attempts to identify the management problems experienced by principals of township secondary schools which obtained a pass rate of 40% or less for more than three years prior to 2002. The study found that these principals experience innumerable problems which have a negative influence on academic achievement and which must be resolved

The Politics of Exhaustion and the Externalization of British Border Control. An Articulation of a Strategy Designed to Deter, Control and Exclude

In response to contemporary forms of human mobility, there has been a continued hardening of borders seeking to deter, control and exclude certain groups of people from entering nation states in Europe, North America and Australasia. Within this context, a disconcerting evolution of new and increasingly sophisticated forms of border control measures have emerged, which often play out within bilateral arrangements of “externalised” or “offshore” border controls. Drawing on extensive first‐hand field research among displaced people in Calais, Paris and Brussels in 2016–2019, this paper argues that the externalization of the British border to France is contingent upon a harmful strategy, which can be understood as the “politics of exhaustion.” This is a raft of (micro) practices and methods strategically aimed to deter, control and exclude certain groups of people on the move who have been profiled as “undesirable,” with a detrimental (un)intended impact on human lives

Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors Downregulate Checkpoint Kinase 1 Expression to Induce Cell Death in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Cells

Background: Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) are promising anticancer drugs; however, the molecular mechanisms leading to HDACi-induced cell death have not been well understood and no clear mechanism of resistance has been elucidated to explain limited efficacy of HDACis in clinical trials. Methods and Findings: Here, we show that protein levels of checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1), which has a major role in G2 cell cycle checkpoint regulation, was markedly reduced at the protein and transcriptional levels in lung cancer cells treated with pan-and selective HDACis LBH589, scriptaid, valproic acid, apicidin, and MS-275. In HDACi treated cells Chk1 function was impaired as determined by decreased inhibitory phosphorylation of cdc25c and its downstream target cdc2 and increased expression of cdc25A and phosphorylated histone H3, a marker of mitotic entry. In time course experiments, Chk1 downregulation occurred after HDACi treatment, preceding apoptosis. Ectopic expression of Chk1 overcame HDACiinduced cell death, and pretreating cells with the cdc2 inhibitor purvalanol A blocked entry into mitosis and prevented cell death by HDACis. Finally, pharmacological inhibition of Chk1 showed strong synergistic effect with LBH589 in lung cancer cells. Conclusions: These results define a pathway through which Chk1 inhibition can mediate HDACi-induced mitotic entry and cell death and suggest that Chk1 could be an early pharmacodynamic marker to assess HDACi efficacy in clinical samples

Management development in education: fact or fiction – some preliminary findings

Whether behaviour dimensions in a management context can be changed by means of training programmes is a debatable issue. Little if any research has been done in this regard and, in the education setting, it appears no research at all has been done. Against this background the first experimental research project of its kind was launched in South Africa. The research design made provision for an experimental and a control group, both consisting of an equal number of secondary school principals. As a first step, both groups were exposed to a recognised assessment centre (ACEL) during which certain management dimensions were evaluated. The second step was to put the experimental group through a management training programme followed by the third step, namely, a second assessment for both groups. According to the statistical results, two behaviour dimensions of the experimental group showed a significant difference before and after the training programme, whilst no significant difference was recorded for the control group. This research project does not claim that management dimensions of educational leaders can be changed by means of training. The work should rather be regarded as a pilot study and the first empirical attempt of this kind in the field of education management. The findings are therefore preliminary and can only be verified by a longitudinal study. (South African Journal of Education: 2002 22(2): 132-135

LBH589 treatment leads to mitotic abnormalities and cytokinesis failures.

<p>A549 cells were treated with vehicle (control) or 40 nM LBH589 for 24 hours. <i>A</i>, arrows show bi- or multinucleated cells with impaired cytokinesis in LBH589-treated NSCLC cells. <i>B</i>, cells were fixed and stained with DAPI or cleaved poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (cPARP) antibody (×100 or ×400 magnification). <i>C</i>, Western blot analysis demonstrating that HDAC inhibition by LBH589 causes histone H3 phosphorylation (H3-P10), histone H4 acetylation (Acety-H4), and PARP cleavage (cPARP) in A549 cells treated with LBH589 for 24 hours. β-actin was used as loading control.</p

<i>A</i>, HDACi-mediated decrease in CHK1 precedes apoptosis.

<p>A549 cells were untreated or treated with LBH589 (40 nM) for various time points. Cell lysates were prepared, and protein expression levels of cPARP, CHK1, Tyr15 phosphorylation of pCDC2 (pCDC2 ^Y15), Ser216 phosphorylation of CDC25C (pCDC25 ^S216), acetyl-H4, and cyclin B1 were determined. <i>B</i>, Quantitative Chk1 mRNA expression analysis. Total RNA was prepared from A549 cells after 24 hours of treatment with 40 nM LBH589 or vehicle. mRNA expression levels were quantified using Real-time PCR analysis. All results were normalized to GAPDH mRNA levels, and the mean and standard deviations values from four independent experiments are shown. <i>C</i>, Ectopic expression of Chk1 reverses HDACi-induced apoptosis but not histone acetylation. A549 cells were transiently transfected with an empty vector (control) or GFP- or FLAG-tagged (GFP-CHK1 or FLAG-CHK1) Chk1 expression plasmid. Forty-eight hours after transfection, cells were cultured without (control, C) or with LBH589 (L) (40 nM) for an additional 24 hour before harvesting for Western blot analysis. Treatment-induced changes in cPARP, acetyl-H4, phospho-CDC2 ^Y15, and ectopically expressed GFP-CHK1 or FLAG-CHK1 proteins were determined by Western blot analysis. β-actin expression was used as loading control. Experiments were repeated 3 times, and a representative experiment is shown. The arrows show the position of the GFP-CHK1 and FLAG-CHK1 proteins. <i>D</i>, in primary NSCLC patient samples, Chk1 protein downregulation correlates with increased cPARP <i>ex vivo</i>. Tumor samples were collected with a 23-gauge needle from patient-derived tumors, and cells were treated in duplicate with vehicle (control) or LBH589 (40 nM) for 18 hours. Following treatment, adherent and non-adherent cells were pooled, cell extracts were prepared, and expression levels of cPARP, Chk1, and acetyl-H3 were analyzed by Western blot. β-actin expression was used as loading control. SCC: squamous cell carcinoma; AC: adenocarcinoma.</p