Good Schools Require the Arts

Discusses the purpose and accomplishments of the Arts Education Partnership and its more than 100 national arts, education, business and philanthropic organizations. Provides guidance on how to join the Partnership

Young Children and the Arts: Making Creative Connections -- A Report of the Task Force on Children's Learning and the Arts: Birth to Age Eight

Provides guiding principles and recommendations to organizations to support the development of arts-based early childhood programs and resources

The view from the deck - exploring lecturers’ and middle managers’ perceptions of English FE sector professional development: a case study evaluation

The focus of this research was to investigate both how further education (FE) lecturers and middle managers engage in professional development and what they perceive to constitute effective professional development. This focus represents an area of stark paucity in the literature that requires attention in this historically under-funded, yet evermore burdened, education sector (Hodgson, 2015; Lucas and Nasta, 2010; Lucas, 2004a; Robson, 1998) that can ill afford to divert scarce time and money to forms of professional development that do not incur some form of salient learning. The original contribution of this work is located both in addressing this paucity and in developing an existent framework for the evaluation of professional development (proposed by Fraser et al., 2007) that can be applied in future research.Framed by an epistemology of social constructivism and as an insider researcher (Floyd and Arthur, 2012), I used semi-structured interviews with lecturers and middle managers and conducted thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2016) of the data.I found that there are contrasting understandings between the participants of mandatory professional development and the planners (senior managers) regarding the underlying purposes of professional development, underpinned by divergent conceptualisations of professionalism in the sector. Mandatory professional development was perceived as generic and transmissive (Kennedy, 2005) (didactic) in nature, and often perceived as irrelevant to the professional learning needs of those mandated to attend. Non-mandatory professional development was characterised as addressing critical learning needs as identified by participants, albeit with little organisational support afforded to this form of professional learning. While mandatory professional development tends to comprise top-down communication of policy priorities, the professional learning needs of FE lecturers are often sidelined. Lecturers and middle managers therefore frequently address their own professional learning needs in their own time, at their own expense, which appears to perpetuate a culture of cynical compliance among professional educators in the sector (Coffield in Daley, Orr and Petrie, 2015).Effective professional development was found to involve: the voice and agency of the learners in determining the focus of learning; opportunities for reflection; suitable physical conditions for learning; active learning and an element of fun; and learning in a community and landscapes of practice (Wenger, 2014)

This was actually fun! : Engaging users in conversations about digital literacy

This interactive presentation highlights pop-up programming designed to improve 21st century digital literacies. The session includes an overview of activity development and reflections on its success. Participants will explore light-touch digital literacy games on their personal devices and take home tools to recreate similar programming at their library

Molecular Imaging with Genetically Programmed Nanoparticles

Nanoparticle research has greatly benefitted medical imaging platforms by generating new signals, enhancing detection sensitivity, and expanding both clinical and preclinical applications. For magnetic resonance imaging, the fabrication of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles has provided a means of detecting cells and has paved the way for magnetic particle imaging. As the field of molecular imaging grows and enables the tracking of cells and their molecular activities so does the possibility of tracking genetically programmed biomarkers. This chapter discusses the advantages and challenges of gene-based contrast, using the bacterial magnetosome model to highlight the requirements of in vivo iron biomineralization and reporter gene expression for magnetic resonance signal detection. New information about magnetosome protein interactions in non-magnetic mammalian cells is considered in the light of design and application(s) of a rudimentary magnetosome-like nanoparticle for molecular imaging. Central to this is the hypothesis that a magnetosome root structure is defined by essential magnetosome genes, whose expression positions the biomineral in a given membrane compartment, in any cell type. The use of synthetic biology for programming multi-component structures not only broadens the scope of reporter gene expression for molecular MRI but also facilitates the tracking of cell therapies

Voices from the deck: Lecturers' and middle managers' perceptions of effective FE sector professional development

This article discusses the findings of research into further education (FE) lecturers' and middle managers’ perceptions of what constitutes effective professional development. This focus addresses an area of paucity in the literature that requires attention in this historically under-funded, yet evermore burdened, education sector which can ill afford to divert scarce resources to forms of professional development that do not result in salient learning, and consequential improved student outcomes. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews revealed that effective professional development is perceived to involve: the participation of lecturers in determining the focus of their own professional learning; opportunities for reflection; active learning and an element of fun; and learning within communities of practice

MagA expression attenuates iron export activity in undifferentiated multipotent P19 cells

© 2019 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive imaging modality used in longitudinal cell tracking. Previous studies suggest that MagA, a putative iron transport protein from magnetotactic bacteria, is a useful gene-based magnetic resonance contrast agent. Hem-agglutinin-tagged MagA was stably expressed in undifferentiated embryonic mouse teratocarcinoma, multipotent P19 cells to provide a suitable model for tracking these cells during differentiation. Western blot and immunocytochemistry confirmed the expression and membrane localization of MagA in P19 cells. Surprisingly, elemental iron analysis using inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry revealed significant iron uptake in both parental and MagA-expressing P19 cells, cultured in the presence of iron-supplemented medium. Withdrawal of this extracellular iron supplement revealed unexpected iron export activity in P19 cells, which MagA expression attenuated. The influence of iron supplementation on parental and MagA-expressing cells was not reflected by longitudinal relaxation rates. Measurement of transverse relaxation rates (R2* and R2) reflected changes in total cellular iron content but did not clearly distinguish MagA-expressing cells from the parental cell type, despite significant differences in the uptake and retention of total cellular iron. Unlike other cell types, the reversible component R20 (R2* – R2) provided only a moderately strong correlation to amount of cellular iron, normalized to amount of protein. This is the first report to characterize MagA expression in a previously unrecognized iron exporting cell type. The interplay between contrast gene expression and systemic iron metabolism substantiates the potential for diverting cellular iron toward the formation of a novel iron compartment, however rudimentary when using a single magnetotactic bacterial gene expression system like magA. Since relatively few mammalian cells export iron, the P19 cell line provides a tractable model of ferroportin activity, suitable for magnetic resonance analysis of key iron-handling activities and their influence on gene-based MRI contrast

Review: Effects of Ractopamine Hydrochloride (Paylean) on welfare indicators for market weight pigs

This review summarizes the effects of ractopamine hydrochloride (RAC) dose (5, 7.5, 10, and 20 mg/kg) on market weight pig welfare indicators. Ractopamine hydrochloride (trade name Paylean) is a β-adrenergic agonist that was initially approved in the U.S. in 1999 at doses of 5 to 20 mg/kg to improve feed efficiency and carcass leanness. However, anecdotal reports suggested that RAC increased the rate of non-ambulatory (fatigued and injured) pigs at U.S. packing plants. This led to the addition of a caution statement to the Paylean label, and a series of research studies investigating the effects of RAC on pig welfare. Early research indicated that: (1) regardless of RAC administration, fatigued (non-ambulatory, non-injured) pigs are in a state of metabolic acidosis; (2) aggressive handling increases stress responsiveness at 20 mg/kg RAC, while 5 mg/kg reduces stress responsiveness to aggressive handling. Given this information, dosage range for Paylean was changed in 2006 to 5 to 10 mg/kg in market weight pigs. Subsequent research on RAC demonstrated that: (1) RAC has minimal effects on mortality, lameness, and home pen behavior; (2) RAC fed pigs demonstrated inconsistent prevalence and intensity of aggressive behaviors; (3) RAC fed pigs may be more difficult to handle at doses above 5 mg/kg; and (4) RAC fed pigs may have increased stress responsiveness and higher rates of non-ambulatory pigs when subjected to aggressive handling, especially when 20 mg/kg of RAC is fed

Induction of Biogenic Magnetization and Redox Control by a Component of the Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 Signaling Pathway

Most organisms are simply diamagnetic, while magnetotactic bacteria and migratory animals are among organisms that exploit magnetism. Biogenic magnetization not only is of fundamental interest, but also has industrial potential. However, the key factor(s) that enable biogenic magnetization in coordination with other cellular functions and metabolism remain unknown. To address the requirements for induction and the application of synthetic bio-magnetism, we explored the creation of magnetism in a simple model organism. Cell magnetization was first observed by attraction towards a magnet when normally diamagnetic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae were grown with ferric citrate. The magnetization was further enhanced by genetic modification of iron homeostasis and introduction of ferritin. The acquired magnetizable properties enabled the cells to be attracted to a magnet, and be trapped by a magnetic column. Superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometry confirmed and quantitatively characterized the acquired paramagnetism. Electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy showed electron-dense iron-containing aggregates within the magnetized cells. Magnetization-based screening of gene knockouts identified Tco89p, a component of TORC1 (Target of rapamycin complex 1), as important for magnetization; loss of TCO89 and treatment with rapamycin reduced magnetization in a TCO89-dependent manner. The TCO89 expression level positively correlated with magnetization, enabling inducible magnetization. Several carbon metabolism genes were also shown to affect magnetization. Redox mediators indicated that TCO89 alters the intracellular redox to an oxidized state in a dose-dependent manner. Taken together, we demonstrated that synthetic induction of magnetization is possible and that the key factors are local redox control through carbon metabolism and iron supply