Learning for a Change: Exploring the Relationship Between Education and Sustainable Development

Whether we view sustainable development as our greatest challenge or a subversive litany, every phase of education is now being urged to declare its support for education for sustainable development (ESD). In this paper, we explore the ideas behind ESD and, building on work by Foster and by Scott and Gough, we argue that it is necessary now to think of two complementary approaches: ESD 1 and ESD 2. We see ESD 1 as the promotion of informed, skilled behaviours and ways of thinking, useful in the short-term where the need is clearly identified and agreed, and ESD 2 as building capacity to think critically about what experts say and to test ideas, exploring the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in sustainable living. We note the prevalence of ESD 1 approaches, especially from policy makers; this is a concern because people rarely change their behaviour in response to a rational call to do so, and more importantly, too much successful ESD 1 in isolation would reduce our capacity to manage change ourselves and therefore make us less sustainable. We argue that ESD 2 is a necessary complement to ESD 1, making it meaningful in a learning sense. In this way we avoid an either-or debate in favour of a yes-and approach that constantly challenges us to understand what we are communicating, how we are going about it and, crucially, why we are doing it in the first place

Pleural mesothelioma and lung cancer risks in relation to occupational history and asbestos lung burden.

BACKGROUND: We have conducted a population-based study of pleural mesothelioma patients with occupational histories and measured asbestos lung burdens in occupationally exposed workers and in the general population. The relationship between lung burden and risk, particularly at environmental exposure levels, will enable future mesothelioma rates in people born after 1965 who never installed asbestos to be predicted from their asbestos lung burdens. METHODS: Following personal interview asbestos fibres longer than 5 µm were counted by transmission electron microscopy in lung samples obtained from 133 patients with mesothelioma and 262 patients with lung cancer. ORs for mesothelioma were converted to lifetime risks. RESULTS: Lifetime mesothelioma risk is approximately 0.02% per 1000 amphibole fibres per gram of dry lung tissue over a more than 100-fold range, from 1 to 4 in the most heavily exposed building workers to less than 1 in 500 in most of the population. The asbestos fibres counted were amosite (75%), crocidolite (18%), other amphiboles (5%) and chrysotile (2%). CONCLUSIONS: The approximate linearity of the dose-response together with lung burden measurements in younger people will provide reasonably reliable predictions of future mesothelioma rates in those born since 1965 whose risks cannot yet be seen in national rates. Burdens in those born more recently will indicate the continuing occupational and environmental hazards under current asbestos control regulations. Our results confirm the major contribution of amosite to UK mesothelioma incidence and the substantial contribution of non-occupational exposure, particularly in women

Hydrodynamic flow patterns and synchronization of beating cilia

We calculate the hydrodynamic flow field generated far from a cilium which is attached to a surface and beats periodically. In the case of two beating cilia, hydrodynamic interactions can lead to synchronization of the cilia, which are nonlinear oscillators. We present a state diagram where synchronized states occur as a function of distance of cilia and the relative orientation of their beat. Synchronized states occur with different relative phases. In addition, asynchronous solutions exist. Our work could be relevant for the synchronized motion of cilia generating hydrodynamic flows on the surface of cells.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, v2: minor correction

Dietary intake, nutritional status and mental wellbeing of homeless adults in Reading, UK

Malnutrition has been reported in the homeless, yet the specific nutritional issues faced by each homeless community are unclear. This is in part due to nutrient intake often being compared with dietary reference values as opposed to a comparative housed population. In addition, the complex interplay between nutrient intake, reward mediated behaviour and mental illness is frequently overlooked. This study aimed to compare the dietary intake, nutritional status and mental wellbeing of homeless and housed adults. Homeless (n 75) and matched housed (n 75) adults were recruited from Reading (UK). Nutrient intake was determined using the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Norfolk FFQ. The Patient Health Questionnaire: Somatic Anxiety Depressive Symptoms (PHQ-SADS) assessed for signs of mental illness. Demographic, behavioural and physiological information was collected using closed-ended questions and anthropometric measurements. Overall, dietary intake was poorer in homeless adults who reported higher intakes of salt (8·0 v. 6·4 g, P=0·017), SFA (14·6 v. 13·0 %, P=0·002) and alcohol (5·3 v. 1·9 %, P<0·001) and lower intakes of fibre (13·4 v. 16·3 g, P<0·001), vitamin C (79 v. 109 mg, P<0·001) and fruit (96 v. 260 g, P<0·001) than housed. Smoking, substance misuse and PHQ-SADS scores were also higher in the homeless (P<0·001). Within the homeless population, street homeless (n 24) had lower SFA (13·7 v.15·0 %, P=0·010), Ca (858 v. 1032 mg, P=0·027) and milk intakes (295 v. 449 g, P=0·001) than hostel residents (n 51), which may reflect the issues with food storage. This study highlights the disparity between nutritional status in homeless and housed populations and the need for dietary intervention in the homeless community

A review of consumer awareness, understanding and use of food-based dietary guidelines

Copyright @ 2011 Cambridge University PressFood-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) have primarily been designed for the consumer to encourage healthy, habitual food choices, decrease chronic disease risk and improve public health. However, minimal research has been conducted to evaluate whether FBDG are utilised by the public. The present review used a framework of three concepts, awareness, understanding and use, to summarise consumer evidence related to national FBDG and food guides. Searches of nine electronic databases, reference lists and Internet grey literature elicited 939 articles. Predetermined exclusion criteria selected twenty-eight studies for review. These consisted of qualitative, quantitative and mixed study designs, non-clinical participants, related to official FBDG for the general public, and involved measures of consumer awareness, understanding or use of FBDG. The three concepts of awareness, understanding and use were often discussed interchangeably. Nevertheless, a greater amount of evidence for consumer awareness and understanding was reported than consumer use of FBDG. The twenty-eight studies varied in terms of aim, design and method. Study quality also varied with raw qualitative data, and quantitative method details were often omitted. Thus, the reliability and validity of these review findings may be limited. Further research is required to evaluate the efficacy of FBDG as a public health promotion tool. If the purpose of FBDG is to evoke consumer behaviour change, then the framework of consumer awareness, understanding and use of FBDG may be useful to categorise consumer behaviour studies and complement the dietary survey and health outcome data in the process of FBDG evaluation and revision.This study is funded by the European Commission Sixth Framework Programme (contract no. 036196)

Human oesophageal adenocarcinoma cell lines JROECL 47 and JROECL 50 are admixtures of the human colon carcinoma cell line HCT 116

In two recently described human oesophageal adenocarcinoma cell lines JROECL 47 and JROECL 50, derived from one tumour, we detected identical E-cadherin and β-catenin gene mutations as in colon carcinoma cell line HCT 116. We demonstrate by HLA-typing, mutation analysis and microsatellite analysis that cell lines JROECL 47 and JROECL 50 are admixtures of the human colon adenocarcinoma cell line HCT 116. © 2000 Cancer Research Campaig

Reading, Trauma and Literary Caregiving 1914-1918: Helen Mary Gaskell and the War Library

This article is about the relationship between reading, trauma and responsive literary caregiving in Britain during the First World War. Its analysis of two little-known documents describing the history of the War Library, begun by Helen Mary Gaskell in 1914, exposes a gap in the scholarship of war-time reading; generates a new narrative of "how," "when," and "why" books went to war; and foregrounds gender in its analysis of the historiography. The Library of Congress's T. W. Koch discovered Gaskell's ground-breaking work in 1917 and reported its successes to the American Library Association. The British Times also covered Gaskell's library, yet researchers working on reading during the war have routinely neglected her distinct model and method, skewing the research base on war-time reading and its association with trauma and caregiving. In the article's second half, a literary case study of a popular war novel demonstrates the extent of the "bitter cry for books." The success of Gaskell's intervention is examined alongside H. G. Wells's representation of textual healing. Reading is shown to offer sick, traumatized and recovering combatants emotional and psychological caregiving in ways that she could not always have predicted and that are not visible in the literary/historical record