The democratic engagement of Britain's ethnic minorities

Democratic engagement is a multi-faceted phenomenon that embraces citizens' involvement with electoral politics, their participation in ‘conventional’ extra-parliamentary political activity, their satisfaction with democracy and trust in state institutions, and their rejection of the use of violence for political ends. Evidence from the 2010 BES and EMBES shows that there are important variations in patterns of democratic engagement across Britain's different ethnic-minority groups and across generations. Overall, ethnic-minority engagement is at a similar level to and moved by the same general factors that influence the political dispositions of whites. However, minority democratic engagement is also strongly affected by a set of distinctive ethnic-minority perceptions and experiences, associated particularly with discrimination and patterns of minority and majority cultural engagement. Second-generation minorities who grew up in Britain are less, rather than more, likely to be engaged

N17 Modifies mutant Huntingtin nuclear pathogenesis and severity of disease in HD BAC transgenic mice.

The nucleus is a critical subcellular compartment for the pathogenesis of polyglutamine disorders, including Huntington's disease (HD). Recent studies suggest the first 17-amino-acid domain (N17) of mutant huntingtin (mHTT) mediates its nuclear exclusion in cultured cells. Here, we test whether N17 could be a molecular determinant of nuclear mHTT pathogenesis in vivo. BAC transgenic mice expressing mHTT lacking the N17 domain (BACHD-ΔN17) show dramatically accelerated mHTT pathology exclusively in the nucleus, which is associated with HD-like transcriptionopathy. Interestingly, BACHD-ΔN17 mice manifest more overt disease-like phenotypes than the original BACHD mice, including body weight loss, movement deficits, robust striatal neuron loss, and neuroinflammation. Mechanistically, N17 is necessary for nuclear exclusion of small mHTT fragments that are part of nuclear pathology in HD. Together, our study suggests that N17 modifies nuclear pathogenesis and disease severity in HD mice by regulating subcellular localization of known nuclear pathogenic mHTT species

Collective Teacher Efficacy in Queensland Secondary School Staffrooms

This thesis examines the nature and strength of the relationship between collective teacher efficacy (CTE) at the staffroom level and student academic achievement in four secondary schools in Queensland, Australia. CTE refers to the aggregate beliefs of a group of teachers in their joint capabilities to positively influence students under their care. It is founded on Bandura's social cognitive theory (1986, 1997) and models of collective efficacy developed primarily by R. Goddard between 1998 and 2004. The study is unique in that it includes analysis of CTE at the staffroom level rather than only the whole school or individual teacher levels. CTE was measured in the study by a survey instrument developed by the author - the Australian Collective Efficacy Survey (ACES). The survey is based on Goddard’s 2002 Collective Efficacy Survey (CES) developed in the United States. The principal analytical tool used in the study was one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA). This tested the strength of association between CTE, current student academic achievement and six other variables thought to be associated with CTE. Results indicated that CTE had a moderate effect on current student achievement. Differences in prior student achievement held the greatest power in explaining variance in current student achievement. There was also a strong association between student socioeconomic status (SES) and current student achievement. Variance in CTE was explained mostly by variations in teacher experience and staffroom longevity. Student SES also had a large effect on CTE. Results support the idea that a higher proportion of experienced teachers in secondary schools is more conducive for a stronger sense of CTE. However, the study did not demonstrate that this translated into improved student academic outcomes. ii Principal Components Analysis (PCA) of the ACES indicated that the instrument displayed acceptable consistency and reliability for measuring CTE. Consistent with previous measures of CTE, two underlying survey components of CTE were identified: task analysis and group competence. Results did not support the key assumption of social cognitive theory that perceived collective teaching expertise (mastery experience) influences CTE. The strong, positive association between prior academic success and CTE at the school level, indicated in previous studies, was not present at the staffroom level in this study. Further studies of CTE at a variety of levels are needed to determine whether teacher experience and staffroom longevity are embodiments of perceived teaching expertise (mastery experience)

A review of the use of complex systems applied to risk appetite and emerging risks in ERM practice

AbstractThe Management Board of the UK Actuarial Profession has identified enterprise risk management (ERM) as an area of growth, particularly within the financial sector. It is an area which offers opportunities for actuaries, working with other disciplines, to move out of their traditional sectors of employment, with the skill set required fitting well with an actuary's training and practical focus.Members of the Profession also highlighted ERM as one of the two main areas where they wanted the Profession to focus their research efforts in the membership survey in 2009. Consequentially the Management Board allocated funds to support research projects in ERM in 2010–2011 and has worked with the ERM Practice Area Committee to identify the topics that they feel most suited to external research where the outputs will have a broad strategic value to the financial services sector.</jats:p

Fate of Cajal–Retzius Neurons in the Postnatal Mouse Neocortex

Cajal–Retzius (CR) neurons play a critical role in cortical neuronal migration, but their exact fate after the completion of neocortical lamination remains a mystery. Histological evidence has been unable to unequivocally determine whether these cells die or undergo a phenotypic transformation to become resident interneurons of Layer 1 in the adult neocortex. To determine their ultimate fate, we performed chronic in vivo two-photon imaging of identified CR neurons during postnatal development in mice that express the green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of the early B-cell factor 2 (Ebf2) promoter. We find that, after birth, virtually all CR neurons in mouse neocortex express Ebf2. Although postnatal CR neurons undergo dramatic morphological transformations, they do not migrate to deeper layers. Instead, their gradual disappearance from the cortex is due to apoptotic death during the second postnatal week. A small fraction of CR neurons present at birth survive into adulthood. We conclude that, in addition to orchestrating cortical layering, a subset of CR neurons must play other roles beyond the third postnatal week

Saving and reproducing the nation: Struggles around right-wing politics of social reproduction, gender and race in austerity Europe

This article suggests the analytic lens of cultural, social and national reproduction to understand the centrality of gendered and ethnic relations, in particular a focus on family life in contemporary UK. Proposing a theoretical focus on reproduction, the article then provides some contextualisation with wider European experiences to show connections between the political articulations across the far-right and mainstream right-wing. It argues that there is much overlap between the far-right and mainstream rightwing, conservative gender and family ideologies, where contradictory aspects of their gender and family ideals (simultaneously progressive and traditional) are articulated as care for the nation's future. Care is then articulated for the purpose of racist activism and constructing governmental belonging. The racialized migrant family plays a central role in these debates, marking the boundaries of the nation. The article explores these issues in depth through the example of material and symbolic constructions of the racialized migrant family as undeserving of care, exemplified through the UK policy of No Recourse to Public Funding