Cognitive Apprenticeship and the Supervision of Science and Engineering Research Assistants

We explore and critically reflect on the process of science and engineering research assistant skill development both within laboratory-based research teams and, when no team is present, within the faculty supervisor-research assistant interactions. Using a performance-based measure of research skill development, we identify research assistants who, over the course of an academic year of service as a researcher, markedly developed, modestly developed, or failed to develop their research skills. Interviews with these research assistants and their faculty supervisors, seen through the lens of cognitive apprenticeship, provide insight into this variation. We found that within the contours of supervisory relationships and research teams, research skill development is indelibly shaped, for better or worse, by supervisor influence and abundant trial-and-error

Graduate students\u27 teaching experiences improve their methodological research skills

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduate students are often encouraged to maximize their engagement with supervised research and minimize teaching obligations. However, the process of teaching students engaged in inquiry provides practice in the application of important research skills. Using a performance rubric, we compared the quality of methodological skills demonstrated in written research proposals for two groups of early career graduate students (those with both teaching and research responsibilities and those with only research responsibilities) at the beginning and end of an academic year. After statistically controlling for preexisting differences between groups, students who both taught and conducted research demonstrate significantly greater improvement in their abilities to generate testable hypotheses and design valid experiments. These results indicate that teaching experience can contribute substantially to the improvement of essential research skills

Policing unacceptable protest in England and Wales: A case study of the policing of anti-fracking protests

In recent years public order policing policy in England and Wales has undergone significant changes. A ‘human rights compliant’ model of protest policing has been developed since 2009 and this article makes a contribution to the body of academic work considering the impact of these changes on operational policing. Drawing upon a longitudinal case study of the policing of protests against ‘fracking’ in Salford, Greater Manchester, in 2013-2014, the article contrasts post-2009 policy and academic discourses on protest policing with the experiences of anti-fracking protesters. To develop this assessment, the article also draws attention to previously unexplored definitions of acceptable and unacceptable protest set out by police in more recent policy, and considers the extent to which these definitions are reflected in the police response to anti-fracking protest. The article suggests that a police commitment to a human rights approach to protest facilitation is, at least in the case of anti-fracking protest, contingent on the focus and form of political activism

Randomized controlled trial and economic evaluation of nurse-led group support for young mothers during pregnancy and the first year postpartum versus usual care

Background Child maltreatment is a significant public health problem. Group Family Nurse Partnership (gFNP) is a new intervention for young, expectant mothers implemented successfully in pilot studies. This study was designed to determine the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of gFNP in reducing risk factors for maltreatment with a potentially vulnerable population. Methods A multi-site randomized controlled parallel-arm trial and prospective economic evaluation was conducted, with allocation via remote randomization (minimization by site, maternal age group) to gFNP or usual care. Participants were expectant mothers aged <20 with at least one live birth, or 20–24 with no live births and with low educational qualifications. Data from maternal interviews at baseline and when infants were two, six and 12 months, and video recording at 12 months, were collected by researchers blind to allocation. Cost information came from weekly logs completed by gFNP family nurses and other service delivery data reported by participants. Primary outcomes measured at 12 months were parenting attitudes (Adult- Adolescent Parenting Index, AAPI-2) and maternal sensitivity (CARE index). The economic evaluation was conducted from a UK NHS and personal social services perspective with cost-effectiveness expressed in terms of incremental cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Main analyses were intention to treat with additional complier average causal effects (CACE) analyses. Results Between August 2013 and September 2014, 492 names of potential participants were received of whom 319 were eligible and 166 agreed to take part, 99 randomly assigned to receive gFNP and 67 to usual care. There were no between-arms differences in AAPI-2 total (7·5/10 in both, SE 0.1), difference adjusted for baseline, site and maternal age-group 0·06 (95% CI -0·15 to 0·28, p=0·59) or CARE Index (intervention 4·0 (SE 0·3); control 4·7(SE 0·4); difference adjusted for site and maternal age-group -0·68; 95% CI -1·62 to 0·16, p=0·25) scores. The probability that gFNP is cost-effective based on the QALY measure did not exceed 3%. Conclusions The trial did not support gFNP as a means of reducing the risk of child maltreatment in this population but slow recruitment adversely affected group size and consequently delivery of the intervention

Anderson's ethical vulnerability: animating feminist responses to sexual violence

Pamela Sue Anderson argues for an ethical vulnerability which “activates an openness to becoming changed” that “can make possible a relational accountability to one another on ethical matters”. In this essay I pursue Anderson’s solicitation that there is a positive politics to be developed from acknowledging and affirming vulnerability. I propose that this politics is one which has a specific relevance for animating the terms of feminist responses to sexual violence, something which has proved difficult for feminist theorists and activists alike. I will demonstrate the contribution of Anderson’s work to such questions by examining the way in which “ethical vulnerability” as a framework can illuminate the intersectional feminist character of Tarana Burke’s grassroots Me Too movement when compared with the mainstream, viral version of the movement. I conclude by arguing that Anderson’s “ethical vulnerability” contains ontological insights which can allay both activist and academic concerns regarding how to respond to sexual violence

Inhibitor of Kappa B Epsilon (IκBε) Is a Non-Redundant Regulator of c-Rel-Dependent Gene Expression in Murine T and B Cells

Inhibitors of kappa B (IκBs) -α, -β and -ε effect selective regulation of specific nuclear factor of kappa B (NF-κB) dimers according to cell lineage, differentiation state or stimulus, in a manner that is not yet precisely defined. Lymphocyte antigen receptor ligation leads to degradation of all three IκBs but activation only of subsets of NF-κB-dependent genes, including those regulated by c-Rel, such as anti-apoptotic CD40 and BAFF-R on B cells, and interleukin-2 (IL-2) in T cells. We report that pre-culture of a mouse T cell line with tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF) inhibits IL-2 gene expression at the level of transcription through suppressive effects on NF-κB, AP-1 and NFAT transcription factor expression and function. Selective upregulation of IκBε and suppressed nuclear translocation of c-Rel were very marked in TNF-treated, compared to control cells, whether activated via T cell receptor (TCR) pathway or TNF receptor. IκBε associated with newly synthesised c-Rel in activated cells and, in contrast to IκBα and -β, showed enhanced association with p65/c-Rel in TNF-treated cells relative to controls. Studies in IκBε-deficient mice revealed that basal nuclear expression and nuclear translocation of c-Rel at early time-points of receptor ligation were higher in IκBε−/− T and B cells, compared to wild-type. IκBε−/− mice exhibited increased lymph node cellularity and enhanced basal thymidine incorporation by lymphoid cells ex vivo. IκBε−/− T cell blasts were primed for IL-2 expression, relative to wild-type. IκBε−/− splenic B cells showed enhanced survival ex vivo, compared to wild-type, and survival correlated with basal expression of CD40 and induced expression of CD40 and BAFF-R. Enhanced basal nuclear translocation of c-Rel, and upregulation of BAFF-R and CD40 occurred despite increased IκBα expression in IκBε−/− B cells. The data imply that regulation of these c-Rel-dependent lymphoid responses is a non-redundant function of IκBε

Observation of tW production in the single-lepton channel in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV

A measurement of the cross section of the associated production of a single top quark and a W boson in final states with a muon or electron and jets in proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV is presented. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36 fb(-1) collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2016. A boosted decision tree is used to separate the tW signal from the dominant t (t) over bar background, whilst the subleading W+jets and multijet backgrounds are constrained using data-based estimates. This result is the first observation of the tW process in final states containing a muon or electron and jets, with a significance exceeding 5 standard deviations. The cross section is determined to be 89 +/- 4 (stat) +/- 12 (syst) pb, consistent with the standard model.Peer reviewe