Embedding and Sustaining Inclusive Practices in STEM

In the UK, data collected nationally by the Higher Education Statistics Agency has shown persistent differences in degree outcomes for specific student groups, such as students with disabilities. In response to this, the Higher Education Funding Council for England are funding 17 projects to help address these inequalities. Building on its expertise in this area, The Open University is leading the Inclusive STEM project with colleagues from the University of Leeds and Plymouth University to evaluate, scale up and promote inclusive educational practices (focusing on the STEM disciplines but with wider application across higher education). There are challenges with inclusive distance learning, many of which are particularly prevalent in the STEM disciplines because of the use of practical and field activities, and the use of mathematical and symbolic characters. Online and blended learning approaches, including digital access to learning resources, bring opportunities for more inclusive practice, but they can also lead to unforeseen and unquantified barriers for students. Integrating an inclusive approach to teaching and learning requires universities to embed and sustain practices that consider the diverse needs of all students throughout curriculum design and delivery. The Inclusive STEM project has identified examples of good practice in these areas and is evaluating, improving and scaling these up throughout higher education. This has included surveying staff to better understand their knowledge, skills and perceptions about inclusive teaching and learning. In this presentation, we will present data from three UK universities on staff perceptions and practices regarding accessibility and inclusion; we will explore case study examples of inclusive practice, and we will discuss how these can be applied by practitioners in all areas in order to create a higher education environment in which students of all backgrounds and characteristics are able to succeed

About the realization of chiral symmetry in QCD2

Two dimensional massless Quantum Chromodynamics presents many features which resemble those of the true theory. In particular the spectrum consists of mesons and baryons arranged in flavor multiplets without parity doubling. We analyze the implications of chiral symmetry, which is not spontaneously broken in two dimensions, in the spectrum and in the quark condensate. We study how parity doubling, an awaited consequence of Coleman's theorem, is avoided due to the dimensionality of space-time and confinement. We prove that a chiral phase transition is not possible in the theory.Comment: 9 pages, latex, ftuv/92-

Relative contribution of intramyocellular lipid to whole-body fat oxidation is reduced with age but subsarcolemmal lipid accumulation and insulin resistance are only associated with overweight individuals

Insulin resistance is closely related to intramyocellular lipid (IMCL) accumulation, and both are associated with increasing age. It remains to be determined to what extent perturbations in IMCL metabolism are related to the aging process per se. On two separate occasions, whole-body and muscle insulin sensitivity (euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp with 2-deoxyglucose) and fat utilization during 1 h of exercise at 50% VO2max ([U-13C]palmitate infusion combined with electron microscopy of IMCL) were determined in young lean (YL), old lean (OL), and old overweight (OO) males. OL displayed IMCL content and insulin sensitivity comparable with those in YL, whereas OO were markedly insulin resistant and had more than twofold greater IMCL in the subsarcolemmal (SSL) region. Indeed, whereas the plasma free fatty acid Ra and Rd were twice those of YL in both OL and OO, SSL area only increased during exercise in OO. Thus, skeletal muscle insulin resistance and lipid accumulation often observed in older individuals are likely due to lifestyle factors rather than inherent aging of skeletal muscle as usually reported. However, age per se appears to cause exacerbated adipose tissue lipolysis, suggesting that strategies to reduce muscle lipid delivery and improve adipose tissue function may be warranted in older overweight individuals

The promotion of children's health and wellbeing:the contributions of England's charity sector

Background. Sports and arts based services for children have positive impacts on their mental and physical health. The charity sector provides such services, often set up in response to local communities expressing a need. The present study maps resilience promoting services provided by children's charities in England. Specifically, the prominence of sports and arts activities, and types of mental health provisions including telephone help-lines, are investigated. Findings. The study was a cross-sectional web-based survey of chief executives, senior mangers, directors and chairs of charities providing services for children under the age of 16. The aims, objectives and activities of participating children's charities and those providing mental health services were described overall. In total 167 chief executives, senior managers, directors and chairs of charities in England agreed to complete the survey. From our sample of charities, arts activities were the most frequently provided services (58/167, 35%), followed by counselling (55/167, 33%) and sports activities (36/167, 22%). Only 13% (22/167) of charities expected their work to contribute to the health legacy of the 2012 London Olympics. Telephone help lines were provided by 16% of the charities that promote mental health. Conclusions. Counselling and arts activities were relatively common. Sports activities were limited despite the evidence base that sport and physical activity are effective interventions for well-being and health gain. Few of the charities we surveyed expected a health legacy from the 2012 London Olympics

Injectable semaglutide and reductions in HbA1c and weight in the real world in people switched from alternative glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists

The ABCD semaglutide audit was designed to capture the routine clinical outcomes of people commenced on semaglutide in the UK. Previous work showed differential reductions in HbA1c and weight dependent on previous glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) exposure. The analysis, in this research letter, shows that decreases in HbA1c and weight associated with semaglutide occur irrespective of previous GLP-1RA use. However, HbA1c reductions were less if switched from dulaglutide or liraglutide and weight changes were attenuated if switched from dulaglutide or exenatide, potentially suggesting differing potencies between GLP-1RAs. Dedicated studies with head-to-head comparisons are needed to confirm these findings

Infant mental health home visiting therapists- reflective supervision self- efficacy in community practice settings

In recent years, there has been an increase in the research on reflective supervision, including the development of tools designed to measure reflective practice in the context of reflective supervision. The Reflective Supervision Self- Efficacy Scale for Supervisees (RSSESS) is a self- report measure that has been used in previous evaluations and is designed to assess perceived reflective practice self- efficacy for Infant Mental Health- Home Visiting (IMH- HV) therapists. Properties of the RSSESS including factor structure and reliability are explored in a first study that lays the foundation for the use of the RSSESS in an IMH- HV evaluation in the State of Michigan. IMH- HV therapists completed the RSSESS at 4 time points over a 12- month period and also completed a Clinician Profile Form that included questions about their IMH background and their work experience, including job satisfaction and burnout. Results indicated that the RSSESS is a reliable tool to measure change in reflective practice skills. IMH- HV therapists demonstrated growth in their use of reflective practice skills with families and their observational skills over the 12- month period. In addition, results indicated correlations between reflective supervision self- efficacy and job satisfaction as well as burnout.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154909/1/imhj21834.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/154909/2/imhj21834_am.pd

Astrocyte reactivity influences amyloid-β effects on tau pathology in preclinical Alzheimer's disease

An unresolved question for the understanding of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathophysiology is why a significant percentage of amyloid-β (Aβ)-positive cognitively unimpaired (CU) individuals do not develop detectable downstream tau pathology and, consequently, clinical deterioration. In vitro evidence suggests that reactive astrocytes unleash Aβ effects in pathological tau phosphorylation. Here, in a biomarker study across three cohorts (n = 1,016), we tested whether astrocyte reactivity modulates the association of Aβ with tau phosphorylation in CU individuals. We found that Aβ was associated with increased plasma phosphorylated tau only in individuals positive for astrocyte reactivity (Ast+). Cross-sectional and longitudinal tau-positron emission tomography analyses revealed an AD-like pattern of tau tangle accumulation as a function of Aβ only in CU Ast+ individuals. Our findings suggest astrocyte reactivity as an important upstream event linking Aβ with initial tau pathology, which may have implications for the biological definition of preclinical AD and for selecting CU individuals for clinical trials

Creatine ingestion augments dietary carbohydrate mediated muscle glycogen supercomposition during the initial 24 hrs of recovery following prolonged exhaustive exercise in humans

Muscle glycogen availability can limit endurance exercise performance. We previously demonstrated 5 days of creatine (Cr) and carbohydrate (CHO) ingestion augmented post-exercise muscle glycogen storage compared to CHO feeding alone in healthy volunteers. Here we aimed to characterise the time-course of this Cr-induced response under more stringent and controlled experimental conditions and identify potential mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon. Fourteen healthy, male volunteers cycled to exhaustion at 70% VO2peak. Muscle biopsies were obtained at rest immediately post-exercise and after 1, 3 and 6 days of recovery, during which Cr or placebo supplements (20g.day-1) were ingested along with a prescribed high CHO diet (37.5 kcal.kg body mass-1.day-1, >80% calories CHO). Oral-glucose tolerance tests (oral-GTT) were performed pre-exercise and after 1, 3 and 6 days of Cr and placebo supplementation. Exercise depleted muscle glycogen content to the same extent in both treatment groups. Creatine supplementation increased muscle total-Cr, free-Cr and phosphocreatine (PCr) content above placebo following 1, 3 and 6 days of supplementation (all P<0.05). Creatine supplementation also increased muscle glycogen content noticeably above placebo after 1 day of supplementation (P<0.05), which was sustained thereafter. This study confirmed dietary Cr augments post-exercise muscle glycogen super-compensation, and demonstrates this occurred during the initial 24 h of post-exercise recovery (when muscle total-Cr had increased by <10%). This marked response ensued without apparent treatment differences in muscle insulin sensitivity (oral-GTT, muscle GLUT4 mRNA), osmotic stress (muscle c-fos and HSP72 mRNA) or muscle cell volume (muscle water content) responses, such that another mechanism must be causative