What Catholic educators can learn from the radical Christianity and critical pedagogy of Don Lorenzo Milani

This paper exposes some of the ideas expressed or associated with the work of don Lorenzo Milani and the School of Barbiana and discusses them in the light of the teachings of the gospels. It draws out the ramifications of these ideas for a critical education in the Christian spirit. The focus throughout is on education for social justice.peer-reviewe

Pension Policy in EU25 and its Possible Impact on Elderly Poverty

This paper reviews changes in pension policies in EU countries between 1995 and 2005 and describes how they might affect risk of poverty for future pensioner populations. The pension landscape in Europe has changed considerably in the past decade and the paper highlights commonalities as well as differences in pension reforms across these countries. A common trend is that the retirement incomes drawn from the public pension systems are on the decline, the changes are likely to shift more risks towards individuals, and there are fewer possibilities of redistribution in favour of the lower income individuals. The paper includes exploratory projections of how the risk of elderly poverty might evolve in the future. The countries where the benefit ratio is set to decline significantly, as expected, would see at-risk-poverty rates increase quite substantially, especially during the period 2025-2050, when the bulk of the decline is expected. This analysis points towards the importance of a more comprehensive assessment of the reforms, in particular in their impact on vulnerable groups (such as women and disabled people with disruptive work history) and in the clarity of the signals they give to individuals in extending their working career if they want to avoid greater risks of poverty during retirement.Social Security and Public Pensions, Retirement, Retirement Policies, Private Pensions

CRISPR-Cas9 and its clinical applications

CRISPR-Cas9 is a powerful and simple tool for editing genomes. It allows researchers to alter DNA sequences and gene function. Its potential applications include correcting genetic defects and treating and preventing the spread of diseases. In China, clinical human trials using CRISPR-Cas9 are now in progress.peer-reviewe

Clinical implications of bioinformatics

Over the past decade, the science of clinical bioinformatics has become one of the fastest growing areas of research and development within the healthcare environment. Indeed, the job of a bioinformatician has become an integral part of research laboratories. In particular, clinical bioinformatics aims to address the challenges in diagnosis, prognosis, and therapies of patients with diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative (e.g. ALS, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease), allergic (e.g. asthma), and psychiatric disorders (e.g. depression), amongst others.peer-reviewe

The dark matter of the genome : some insights and clinical applications

Only approximately 1.5% of the human genome encodes protein sequence; the rest is ‘dark matter’. Research on these noncoding regions shows that they play roles in cellular homeostasis, development, differentiation and metabolism. Cancer, cardiovascular, developmental, and neurological diseases are characterised by aberrant expression of these regions. Exploring their clinical utility as biomarkers and molecular targets in medical theranostics is a very promising way forward.peer-reviewe

Role of the microbiome in health and disease

Understanding the role of the microbiota in health and disease may offer new insights into the factors that start and drive the progression of various diseases, like autism, auto-immune disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. In turn, this will offer a platform to stratify the risk of patients for complications and also to deliver new personalised therapeutic strategies.peer-reviewe

Observations on courtship and mating behaviour in Maltese populations of the killifish Apnonius fasciatus (Pisces : Cyprinodontidae)

Courtship and mating behaviour of a Maltese population of Aphanius fasciatus kept in laboratory culture is described. Moles showed a brightening of their coloration. increased aggression towards other moles. and paid more attention to females during the period April-October. Moles took the lead in courtship. Courtship behaviour consisted of a number of acts. Some involved touching the female and these appeared to be designed to arouse sexual interest; others served to exhibit the male's body and to inhibit the female from swimming away. Mating commenced with the female pushing itself into floating algal mots: the male responded by wrapping its body tightly round that of the female. following which ejaculation of eggs and sperm occurred.peer-reviewe

Education and ethnic minorities in Malta

This study, which forms part of the e-Spices learning partnership (acting as background data) was inspired by an earlier study commissioned by The European Racism and Xenophobia Information Network (RAXEN). Unfortunately in this earlier study only a very restricted statistic would be published in the final publication, a statistic that would not do justice to the actual situation and could be interpreted differently by the different parties concerned with the issue. This was one reason why we thought that it would be a good idea to publish the research that was behind the official statistic. We would like the general public to be exposed to a deeper analysis of the situation, how (or if) students from different ethnic backgrounds are being integrated within the local educational set-up.peer-reviewe

A critique of McTaggart’s argument and a defense of a version of presentism from a later Wittgensteinian perspective

The thesis attempts to do four things. First it provides an interpretation of McTaggat’s argument against the reality of time. McTaggart claims that the reality of time requires the reality of two series: the A- and the B-series. In the B-series events and times are positioned earlier/later than each other. This arrangement of events and times is unchanging. In the A-series events change from being future, to being present to being past events. They do so by instantiating incompatible A-series characteristics, which in language-game are expressed by the predicates ‘is future’, ‘is present’ and ‘is past’. McTaggart holds that the reality of time requires the reality of change. Since the A-series is the only series that admits of change, the reality of time requires the reality of the A-series. However, since the reality of the A-series gives rise incompatible facts – represented through sentences like ‘The Battle of Waterloo is past.’ and ‘The Battle of Waterloo is future.’ – the A-series is contradictory. From this McTaggart concludes that the A-series and time itself cannot be real. Arguments which claim that McTaggart is wrong in holding that linguistic expressions like ‘is past’ and ‘is future’ are predicates standing for A-series characteristics (holding instead that these are indexical expressions) or that he mischaracterizes the logical form of sentences like ‘The Battle of Waterloo is past.’, fail to challenge the validity and soundness of his argument. Secondly, the thesis presents an overview of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, focusing on his entries about meaning. It discusses the notions of language-game, rules and hinge assumptions, and interprets Wittgenstein’s claim that the meaning of a linguistic expression is its use. In light of this interpretation of these key Wittgensteinian notions and claims, and of what it takes to be Wittgenstein’s later approach to philosophical problems and issues in general, the thesis critically analyses McTaggart’s arguments. This is the third main enterprise attempted in the thesis. The thesis argues that McTaggart’s paradox arises because he misinterprets sentences like ‘The Battle of Waterloo is past.’; thinking that these sentences are used to predicate an A-series characteristics of an event that would be part of the world. McTaggart is lead astray by a presupposition he makes in his argument – the eternalist presupposition which holds that the reality of time requires the world to contain all events we consider to be in the past, the present and the future arranged along two series. Instead – in a manner typical of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy – the thesis holds that one should consider how sentences like ‘The Battle of Waterloo is present.’ and ‘The Battle of Waterloo is past.’ are typically used in the language-games, situations and circumstances where they are usually employed. The typical use of these sentences would reveal that this is committed to a contrary presupposition – a presentist presuppositions which holds that the world contains only events and/or entities that exist at present. This implies a version of a particular notion of time – presentism. The version of this notion of time that will be upheld in the thesis is called ‘default presentism’. Presentsim is a controversial notion, that has been criticized on a number of counts. The thesis discusses three criticisms concerning the content, ontological commitments and truth of sentences about past entities like ‘Napoleon was the First Emperor of France.’. These respectively claim that the sentence in question expresses a singular proposition that contains the past entity Napoleon, that it is asserting and implying that Napoleon is part of the world and that the truth of the sentence requires that Napoleon exists. All three would imply that default presentism is false. The thesis discusses these three criticisms of presentism in detail, and refutes each, using resources from Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. This is the fourth enterprise which the thesis attempts. The thesis argues that if – in Later Wittgensteinian fashion – one focuses on the typical uses of sentences like ‘Napoleon was the First Emperor of France.’, one would see that the sentence is not expressing a proposition that has Napoleon amongst its constituents. The typical use of the sentence is also not implying or asserting that Napoleon is part of the world. The truth of the sentence does not require that Napoleon exists. This is consistent with default presentis

Spatial Risk Assessment for Coastal Seagrass Habitats in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area: a case study of the dry and wet tropics

[Extract] Seagrasses are specialised marine flowering plants that grow in the estuary and nearshore environments of most of the world’s continents. There are relatively few species globally (about 60) and these are grouped into just 13 Genera and 5 Families. Most are entirely marine although some species (such as Enhalus acoroides) cannot reproduce unless emergent at low tide. There are 15 species of seagrass in the GBRWHA. The high diversity of seagrass reflects the variety of habitats, the extensive bays, estuaries, coasts, lagoons and reefs that are available for seagrass colonization. More than 5,000 km2 of coastal seagrass meadows are in eastern Queensland waters shallower than 15 m and it is expected that approximately 40,000km2 of the seafloor in the GBRWHA deeper than 15 m has some seagrass (Coles et al. 2007). This represents about 36% of the total recorded area of seagrass in Australia