Teaching Life Sciences to English second language learners: What do teachers do?

South Africa has eleven official languages and legally learners receive tuition in their mother tongue until the end of Grade 3. From then on teachers are required to teach through the medium of English or Afrikaans. The implication is that the majority of learners in the senior secondary school phase study Life Sciences in their second language, which is English. This has a major effect on the performance of learners in Life Sciences. A review was done of possible strategies teachers could use to assist English second language learners. Focus group interviews were held with Life Science teachers in an attempt to determine what the impact of teaching Life Sciences to English second language learners is and what teachers can do to assist English second language learners master concepts and terminology. The findings and recommendations of this research are reported here.Keywords: analogies; code switching; English second language learners;Life Sciences teachin

An exploratory survey of male and female learner opinions on secondary school biology education in Gauteng

An exploratory survey was undertaken to determine whether secondary school learners have certain preferences regarding the biology they study at school and whether learners from co-educational and single-sex schools hold the same opinions. A survey schedule comprising two components was developed. The first component consisted of 15 items related to the biology learning programme, and the second consisted of 10 items related to the school. These schedules were completed by 384 Grade 11 learners (16 to 17-year-olds) in co-educational and single-sex schools in Gauteng province. South African Journal of Education Vol.24(2) 2004: 105-10

Professional Development of Teachers in the Tshwane District for Effective Environmental Education

Many teachers in South Africa may have had little exposure to environmental education, yet the revised National Curriculum Statement emphasises the infusion of environmental education into all learning areas. The question arises whether professional development of teachers in environmental education is required for effective teaching in this field. The main aim of this study was to ascertain whether teachers have acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to infuse environmental education in all learning areas. Besides a literature review of sources, a questionnaire was developed as a research tool and 163 teachers in the Tshwane North District Office were involved in the survey. The results suggest that environmental education will have to be addressed in the professional development of teachers to ensure effective implementation of the National Curriculum Statement

Identification of the regional context to increase the use of species mixtures

Construction of solutions for maintaining the economic and environmental sustainability of the arable sector relies on demonstration and understanding of local practical knowledge. This report presents the results of a survey of growers to identify local practical knowledge of current species mixtures, the reasons for these current mixtures as well as barriers and enablers towards more intercropping approaches.The key characteristics of those conducting food intercropping are contrasted against those who grow for forage and those who do not undertake these particular types of intercropping. A novel network approach is used to link the main types of intercropping and this indicates the diversity of intercropping strategies occurring across Europe. Moreover, farmers currently conducting food intercropping emerge as curiosity driven, generally younger and more focused on promotion of individual values around the environment. This seems to agree with the literature on both organic and agro-ecological farming practices. However, farmers have a core of belief around the economic sustainability of the business. The survey provides valuable data for the multi-actor partnerships currently evolving within the ReMIX project to understand the main barriers to uptake

Investigating an Ethical Approach to Genetically Modified Crops in Environmental Educational Processes

Genetically modified (GM) crops gained attention in southern Africa in the context of broader debates about the struggle for food security and poverty alleviation to achieve sustainable development. The prospects of GM crops as a technological innovation have provoked numerous debates and environmental concern groups have challenged their use. Environmental educators’ concern for greater ethical practices regarding environmental issues can be applied to the subject of GM crops. This article focuses on the perceptions of environmental educators regarding the use of GM crops towards sustainable development. Interviews were conducted with a small group of environmental educators to gain some insight into their perceptions. The interviews reflected some contextual relevance of GM crops, understanding of the concepts ‘GM crops’ and ‘sustainable  development’ as well as four unique themes. These emphasise the plurality of the GM crops issue and the importance thereof in working towards an ethical approach in environmental educational processes

Nucleus-Cytoskeleton Crosstalk During Mitotic Entry

In preparation for mitosis, cells undergo extensive reorganization of the cytoskeleton and nucleus, so that chromosomes can be efficiently segregated into two daughter cells. Coordination of these cytoskeletal and nuclear events occurs through biochemical regulatory pathways, orchestrated by Cyclin-CDK activity. However, recent studies provide evidence that physical forces are also involved in the early steps of spindle assembly. Here, we will review how the crosstalk of physical forces and biochemical signals coordinates nuclear and cytoplasmic events during the G2-M transition, to ensure efficient spindle assembly and faithful chromosome segregation.Work in the Biophysics of Cell Division Laboratory was supported by Portuguese funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior in the framework of the project PTDC/BIA-CEL/6740/2020. MD was supported by the grant PD/BD/135548/2018 from the BiotechHealth FCT-funded Ph.D. program. JL was supported by the grant SFRH/BD/147169/2019 from FCT

An economic assessment of ecological practices in Scotland

An early adoption of ecological management practices by farmers is a potential route to achieve sustainable and greener goals for agriculture. This briefing note outlines an economic assessment of four different ecological practices on Scottish livestock farms. The ecological practices used are; ecological area, reducing farm inputs, organic adoption and agro-forestry. The results suggest that ecological area and reduced farm inputs have potential financial benefits on farms and can be easily adopted by farmers. The organic and agro-forestry systems, however, require capital investment to establish and hence provide a challenging prospect of adoption without a provision of financial support<br/

Oxaliplatin toxicity presenting as a liver nodule - case report

BACKGROUND: Oxaliplatin based chemotherapy is often used as adjuvant therapy in colon and rectal cancer. A reported side effect is Sinusoidal Obstruction Syndrome which is characterized by a spectrum of pathologic changes, from sinusoidal dilation, peri-sinusoidal haemorrhage, peliosis and nodular regenerative hyperplasia. Very rarely it can cause the development of liver nodules mimicking liver metastases. Herein, we report a case of Sinusoidal Obstruction Syndrome causing a liver nodule suspicious of liver metastasis on imaging. This is the third reported case of this complication of oxaliplatin toxicity, in which resection was performed and pathological diagnosis confirmed. CASE PRESENTATION: We report the case of a 59 year old man with stage III colon cancer who underwent sigmoidectomy followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with oxaliplatin. One year after surgery a liver nodule was detected and the patient underwent right hepatectomy. Pathology showed no liver nodule and diagnosed sinusoidal obstruction syndrome. CONCLUSION: We describe the third reported case of a liver lesion mimicking a liver metastasis after oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy for colon cancer. We suggest that in patients heavily treated with oxaliplatin with de novo liver nodules, this differential diagnosis should be considered. In particular, in this population of patients an intense imagiologic evaluation and even a preoperative biopsy should be pursued to confirm the diagnosis of malignancy and avoid overtreatment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Spatiotemporal control of mitotic exit during anaphase by an aurora B-Cdk1 crosstalk

According to the prevailing ‘clock’ model, chromosome decondensation and nuclear envelope reformation when cells exit mitosis are byproducts of Cdk1 inactivation at the metaphase-anaphase transition, controlled by the spindle assembly checkpoint. However, mitotic exit was recently shown to be a function of chromosome separation during anaphase, assisted by a midzone Aurora B phosphorylation gradient-the ‘ruler’ model. Here we found that Cdk1 remains active during anaphase due to ongoing APC/CCdc20- and APC/CCdh1-mediated degradation of B-type Cyclins in Drosophila and human cells. Failure to degrade B-type Cyclins during anaphase prevented mitotic exit in a Cdk1-dependent manner. Cyclin B1-Cdk1 localized at the spindle midzone in an Aurora B-dependent manner, with incompletely separated chromosomes showing the highest Cdk1 activity. Slowing down anaphase chromosome motion delayed Cyclin B1 degradation and mitotic exit in an Aurora B-dependent manner. Thus, a crosstalk between molecular ‘rulers’ and ‘clocks’ licenses mitotic exit only after proper chromosome separation.We thank Eric Griffis, Jean-René Huynh, Claudio Sunkel, Jonathon Pines, Melina Schuh and Christian Lehner for the kind gift of reagents, and Marco Gonzalez-Gaitán for supporting OA during the final stages of this work. LPC is the recipient of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action fellowship (grant agreement 746515). EMS holds an FCT Investigator position and his work is supported by Fundac¸ ão para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/BEX-BCM/0432/2014). This work was supported by R01GM107026 grant to TJM and a Commonwealth Honors College grant to CMC Confocal and FLIM microscopy data collection was performed in the Light Microscopy Facility and Nikon Center of Excellence at the Institute for Applied Life Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst with support from the Massachusetts Life Science Center. Work in the HM lab is supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 681443) and FLAD Life Science 2020

Cervical abscess in an immunocompetent patient with Mycobacterium malmoense pulmonary disease

BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium malmoense is a nontuberculous mycobacteria seen mainly in two age groups and with different clinical presentations. Most patients are male adults presenting clinical symptoms and signs similar to those of pulmonary tuberculosis. The second group is formed by immunocompetent children with localized cervical lymphadenitis. Although cervical adenitis is the main extrapulmonary manifestation of M. malmoense, virtually all cases of cervical disease were documented in children. Disseminated disease is rare and has been reported in patients with severely impaired immunity. CASE REPORT: We report a case of a 47-year-old immunocompetent man with a cervical abscess, in whom we identified a M. malmoense pulmonary disease with multiple cervical, thoracic and abdominal adenopathies. CONCLUSION: Extrapulmonary infection due to M. Malmoense needs to be considered on the differential diagnosis of cervical masses and adenopathies, not only in pediatric patients but also in adults with no impaired immunity. A high index of suspicion for nontuberculous mycobacteria is essential for the diagnosis and prognosis