The Measurement of Self-Regulation from Ages 2 to 8

The development of the capacity for self-regulation represents a major achievement of childhood that is associated with social, behavioural and academic competence. Most research has focused on self-regulated academic learning in school-aged children and adolescents, neglecting developmental aspects of self-regulation. This paper reports a longitudinal study of 44 children from early to middle childhood. At age 2, the Goodman Lock Box provided information about the extent to which children’s approaches were systematic and planful, as opposed to random, impulsive and disorganised. The same measure was used in a modified form at age 8, and two additional measures of planning and self-control were added: the Porteus Maze Test and the Grocery Shopping Task. At both ages, Lock Box competence was related to planfulness, and there was a significant correlation of Lock Box competence across the two ages. However, the various measures of self-regulation were unrelated. Several measurement issues are highlighted, in particular the difficulties associated with making assumptions about the intent and meaning of children’s task behaviours

Changing Student Teachers' Attitudes Towards Disability and Inclusion

A total of 274 preservice teacher education students were surveyed at the beginning and end of a one-semester unit on Human Development and Education which combined formal instruction with structured fieldwork experiences. The latter included interviewing community members regarding their knowledge of Down syndrome and opinions on inclusive education, and writing an associated report. At the end of semester, not only had student teachers acquired more accurate knowledge of Down syndrome, together with more positive attitudes towards the inclusive education of children with Down syndrome, but their attitudes towards disability in general had also changed, and they reported greater ease when interacting with people with disabilities. The study illustrated the value of combining information-based instruction with structured fieldwork experiences in changing attitudes towards disability and inclusion. It also demonstrated that raising awareness of one disability may lead to changes in attitudes towards disability in general

Developing Budding Yeast as a Cell Factory for Production of the Antioxidant Ergothioneine

Ergothioneine (EGT) is a naturally occurring sulphur-containing modified amino acid which has been shown to exhibit anti-oxidant properties. EGT is produced by selected fungi and prokaryotes, however Saccharomyces cerevisiae does not naturally produce EGT. Up to 5 genes are involved in bacterial EGT biosynthesis while in fungi, two genes have been identified to be involved in EGT biosynthesis, and one such gene is egtA from Aspergillus fumigatus. Here, it is shown that expression of EgtA alone in the GRAS organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae facilities the production of EGT. The novel production of EGT in S. cerevisiae was confirmed by both HPLC and LC-MS analysis, and quantification of resultant EGT revealed a significantly (P < 0.0001) larger quantity of EGT present extracellularly in culture supernatants and accumulated therein until the time point of 96 h was reached. To complete the EGT biosynthetic process, a cysteine desulfurase is required, and two candidates were identified in A. fumigatus, namely AFUA_2G13295 and AFUA_3G14240, termed egt2a and egt2b in this study. Co-expression of egtA and egt2a in S. cerevisiae using high expression 2μ vectors was expected to increase EGT production, however EGT levels were seen to be significantly decreased (P < 0.05). As expression of egtA alone in S. cerevisiae been shown to effect EGT biosynthesis this raised the question of the ability of S. cerevisiae to complete the EGT biosynthetic process. A putative endogenous cysteine desulfurase Nfs1 was identified in S. cerevisiae. Interestingly decreasing the expression of Nfs1 was shown to increase levels of EGT. Moreover, manipulation of the conserved residue Thr213 in EgtA indicates indiscriminate phosphorylation by threonine kinases could be negatively regulating EGT production in S. cerevisiae. This study demonstrates quite remarkably that S. cerevisiae can produce EGT with the expression of just one additional protein. Hence, production of EGT using a synthetic biology approach now opens the possibility to economically viable means of producing EGT

Feral pig management in Australia: implications for disease control

Feral pigs (Sus scrofa) were introduced to Australia following European settlement and are now widely distributed in a variety of habitats. High-density populations are found particularly in north-eastern Australia. Feral pigs are commonly viewed as a valued hunting or commercial resource, occasionally as an important cultural resource, but overwhelmingly as a devastating agricultural and environmental pest. Their wide-ranging impacts demand intervention through control programs on many production and conservation lands. Feral pigs also carry pathogens of human health significance and contribute to the persistence and transmission of a range of endemic diseases or pathogens of livestock and wildlife. Feral pigs are the invasive species of most concern in Australia as potential vectors of exotic diseas

The affective impact of inclusive secondary mathematics for learners with Down syndrome: "I just love it!"

Curriculum decisions about what mathematics should be taught to students with Down syndrome in secondary school are often based on utilitarian goals and assessments of current attainment. We report in this paper on the effect of an alternative approach - adjusting the standard mathematics curriculum for the year level - on students’ affective responses. Using three vignettes and the Educational Quality of Life framework we draw out implications for curriculum design for learners with Down syndrome, and more broadly, those with intellectual disability. We conclude by arguing for factoring in the impact on the affective domain of teaching the year-level mathematics curriculum, adjusted as required

Self-regulation: A new perspective on learning problems experienced by children born extremely preterm

Survival rates are increasing for children born extremely preterm, yet despite the majority of these children having IQ scores within the average range, 50-70% of these children have later school difficulties. This paper reviews factors associated with academic difficulties in these children, emphasizing the contributions of executive functions (EF) and self-regulation. The roles of EF are examined separately, and also under the unifying construct of self-regulation; that is, the integration of various behavioural, cognitive, and affective elements. Improving self-regulatory skills could moderate the negative effects of EF deficits and inform interventions to improve the educational outcomes of these childre

Optical properties and electronic structure of the Cu-Zn brasses

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. The color of Cu-Zn brasses range from the red of copper through bright yellow to grey-silver as the Zn content increases. Here we examine the mechanism by which these color changes occur. The optical properties of this set of alloys has been calculated using density functional theory (DFT) and compared to experimental spectroscopy measurements. The optical response of the low Zn content α-brasses is shown to have a distinctly different origin to that in the higher content β′, γ and ε-brasses. The response of β′-brass is unique in that it is strongly influenced by an overdamped plasmon excitation and this alloy will also have a strong surface plasmon response