The Getting of Taste: A Child’s Apprenticeship

Childhood art experience reflects an apprenticeship to the taste systems which a child\u27s family and the public school subscribe to. This paper sketches my own taste experiences as a school child advancing from age six to eleven. Taste is used here to mean a person\u27s ability to discern among alternatives. Taste judgments rely on not only aesthetic criteria but also status and economic criteria that are part of the social context in which one makes choices in objects and images. Understanding this childhood apprenticeship reveals some of the factors influencing participation in art activity and aesthetic choice. I will outline a range of insights gained at home and in school (some 400 in all, retrieved from storage in my parent\u27s attic). The study proceeded within the method of phenomenological description and the structure of hermeneutic theory. Although they will not be detailed here, severe consistencies, relationships and meaning that shaped the event of childhood art experience were identified, among them the implicit taste systems that underlie family and teacher choices and judgments

What is the Meaning of “Art Means Work”? (A Critical Response to the A.I.M. Statement)

The A.I.M Statement\u27s endorsement of good work is significant; not as a guide that shows us a clear direction to follow, but for its manifestation of the social and economic contradictions that must be critically addressed if we are to forge a path toward realistic and effective art education for this society. It is that these contradictions have been exposed and my critical reflection prodded that I am most appreciative

Toxic Algae Contamination and Demand for Shellfish: A Case Study of Demand for Mussels in Montreal

Toxic algae blooms are a worldwide phenomena, which appear to be increasing in frequency and severity. These natural events cause product contaminations that often have significant economic consequences, including supply interruptions due to closed fishing grounds, losses from human illness, and losses due to a decline in demand for the affected products. This paper evaluates the impacts of a toxic algae bloom contamination event on demand for unaffected shellfish. As an empirical example of the economic losses the shellfish industry experiences for these events, demand for mussels in Montreal is estimated using firm-level data and proxies for consumer information, during and after domoic acid contamination of Prince Edward Island mussels. Sales losses due to decreased demand are calculated. Implications of this issue for seafood safety and management policies are discussed.demand, shellfish, toxic algae, contamination, Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The need for year-round monitoring of faecal pollution in bathing water

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health concern, which arises from natural processes sped up by the misuse and mismanagement of antibiotics which, has led to longer treatment time, increased costs and risk of death. The environment can play a major role as a source and spread of AMR, with faecal pollution coming from both anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic activity. Faecal pollution poses a major risk to human health, animal health and the environment highlighting One Health initiative. Monitoring of faecal pollution within Northern Ireland falls under the EU Bathing Water Directive (2006/7/EC) which is legislation to monitor identified bathing water sites. Monitoring occurs only during the bathing season, which is from the 1st June to 15th September. However, cold-water swimming is a popular hobby in Northern Ireland that happens all year round highlighting a potential risk. The enumeration of faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) is utilised to identify the potential risk from faecal pathogens to the public. However, FIB does not identify the source of contamination and so microbial source tracking (MST) assays are used to identify possible sources of faecal pollution by targeting specific marker genes. In this investigation, we utilised enumeration of FIB and MST to identify sources of faecal contamination within Newcastle, Co Down during both dry weather and wet weather events outside of the bathing season

Everyday Advocacy as Part of Everyday Professionalism

What would happen if we began to see advocacy as part of teachers’ professional identity, as an integral part of who we all are as teachers—not just in moments of crisis, but every day? This article demonstrates how three teachers have made everyday advocacy part of their identity after participating in advocacy training, by exploring the action plans they created surrounding issues of concern in their local contexts

Tbx5 is Required for Avian and Mammalian Epicardial Formation and Coronary Vasculogenesis.

Rationale: Holt-Oram syndrome (HOS) is an autosomal dominant heart-hand syndrome caused by mutations in the TBX5 gene. Overexpression of Tbx5 in the chick proepicardial organ (PEO) impaired coronary blood vessel formation. However, the potential activity of Tbx5 in the epicardium itself, and Tbx5\u27s role in mammalian coronary vasculogenesis, remains largely unknown. Objective: To evaluate the consequences of altered Tbx5 gene dosage during PEO and epicardial development in the embryonic chick and mouse. Methods and Results: Retroviral-mediated knockdown or upregulation of Tbx5 expression in the embryonic chick PEO as well as proepicardial-specific deletion of Tbx5 in the embryonic mouse (Tbx5(epi-/-)) impaired normal PEO cell development, inhibited epicardial and coronary blood vessel formation and altered developmental gene expression. The generation of epicardial-derived cells (EPDCs) and their migration into the myocardium was impaired between embryonic day (E) 13.5-15.5 in mutant hearts due to delayed epicardial attachment to the myocardium and subepicardial accumulation of EPDCs. This caused defective coronary vasculogenesis associated with impaired vascular smooth muscle cell recruitment, and reduced invasion of cardiac fibroblasts and endothelial cells into myocardium. In contrast to wildtype hearts that exhibited an elaborate ventricular vascular network, Tbx5(epi-/-) hearts displayed a marked decrease in vascular density that was associated with myocardial hypoxia as exemplified by HIF1α upregulation and increased binding of Hypoxyprobe-1. Tbx5(epi-/-) mice with such myocardial hypoxia exhibited reduced exercise capacity compared to wildtype mice. Conclusions: Our findings support a conserved Tbx5 dose-dependent requirement for both proepicardial and epicardial progenitor cell development in chick and mouse coronary vascular formation

Integrating social objectives and indicators for Australian fisheries management

Sustainability and economic efficiency are well established and defined objectives in Australian fisheries management. Many Australian States and Territories include some reference to social considerations in their fisheries legislation, but this is poorly defined and has little direct influence on policy formulation. From the literature, many fisheries social objectives are difficult to quantify, and performance measures against these objectives have either not been clarified or are difficult to assess at broad level scales. In 2010, a project was initiated to determine a nationally applicable set of social objectives and associated indicators for Australian fisheries management. Quantitative indicators were developed, and an overall performance measure was developed using a Bayesian belief network approach. In this paper, the approach undertaken to develop, quantify and assess social objectives and the performance of management against these objectives is presented. This method allows clear social objectives to be utilized and an integrated assessment of them undertaken in line with economic and biological sustainability objectives

A Public Platform for the Verification of the Phenotypic Effect of Candidate Genes for Resistance to Aflatoxin Accumulation and Aspergillus flavus Infection in Maize

A public candidate gene testing pipeline for resistance to aflatoxin accumulation or Aspergillus flavus infection in maize is presented here. The pipeline consists of steps for identifying, testing, and verifying the association of selected maize gene sequences with resistance under field conditions. Resources include a database of genetic and protein sequences associated with the reduction in aflatoxin contamination from previous studies; eight diverse inbred maize lines for polymorphism identification within any maize gene sequence; four Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) mapping populations and one association mapping panel, all phenotyped for aflatoxin accumulation resistance and associated phenotypes; and capacity for Insertion/Deletion (InDel) and SNP genotyping in the population(s) for mapping. To date, ten genes have been identified as possible candidate genes and put through the candidate gene testing pipeline, and results are presented here to demonstrate the utility of the pipeline

Delivering cognitive therapy for adolescent social anxiety disorder in NHS CAMHS: a clinical and cost analysis

Background: Cognitive therapy, based on the Clark & Wells (1995) model, is a first-line treatment for adults with social anxiety disorder (SAD), and findings from research settings suggest it has promise for use with adolescents (Cognitive Therapy for Social Anxiety disorder in Adolescents; CT-SAD-A). However, for the treatment to be suitable for delivery in routine clinical care, two questions need to be addressed. Aims: Can therapists be trained to achieve good outcomes in routine Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and what are the costs associated with training and treatment. Methods: CAMHS therapists working in two NHS trusts received training in CT-SAD-A. They delivered the treatment to adolescents with SAD during a period of supervised practice. We examined the clinical outcomes for the 12 patients treated during this period, and estimated costs associated with treatment and training. Results: Treatment produced significant improvements in social anxiety symptoms, general anxiety and depression symptoms, and reductions in putative process measures. 75% (9 out of 12) patients showed a reliable and clinically significant improvement in social anxiety symptoms and 64% (7/11) lost their primary diagnosis of SAD. The total cost to the NHS of the CT-SAD-A treatment was £4047 (SD=1003) per adolescent treated, of which £1861 (SD=£358) referred to the specific estimated cost of face-to-face delivery; the remaining cost was for training and supervising therapists who were not previously familiar with the treatment. Conclusions: This study provides preliminary evidence that clinicians can deliver good patient outcomes for adolescents with SAD in routine CAMHS during a period of supervised practice after receiving a two-day training workshop. Furthermore, the cost of delivering CT-SAD-A with adolescents appeared to be no more than the cost of delivering CT-SAD with adults

Performance measures for small-bowel endoscopy: A European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) Quality Improvement Initiative

The European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) together with the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) recently developed a short list of performance measures for small-bowel endoscopy (i.e. small-bowel capsule endoscopy and device-assisted enteroscopy) with the final goal of providing endoscopy services across Europe with a tool for quality improvement. Six key performance measures both for small-bowel capsule endoscopy and for device-assisted enteroscopy were selected for inclusion, with the intention being that practice at both a service and endoscopist level should be evaluated against them. Other performance measures were considered to be less relevant, based on an assessment of their overall importance, scientific acceptability, and feasibility. Unlike lower and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, for which performance measures had already been identified, this is the first time small-bowel endoscopy quality measures have been proposed