Languages, ethnicity, and education in London

For the first time in 2008 the Annual School Census (ASC) required all schools to provide pupil information on the language spoken at home. Our analysis focuses on children attending state schools in London. Over 300 languages are spoken by London pupils, around 60% of London pupils are English speakers however, there are over 40 languages spoken by more than 1,000 pupils. Bengali, Urdu and Somali are the top three languages spoken in London, other than English. We show that English has a `doughnut' shaped geographical distribution in London, being the predominant language in most of Outer London. Languages other than English are more common in Inner London. Most minority languages, such as Bengali, Urdu and Turkish, have one, two or three main clusters, reflected settled immigrant communities. However others, notably Somali, are widely dispersed. This has implications for service provision. Some of the ethnic categories that are widely used in analysis of Census data hide substantial linguistic diversity, particularly `Black African' and `White Other.' Within London, where these groups are numerous, language data provides a valuable disaggregation of these heterogeneous groups. Our work suggests that language spoken provides a means to better understand the relationship between ethnicity and educational performance.Languages, London, ethnicity, educational performance

Stakeholder Engagement As Social (ir)responsibility

The assumption of a direct and positive relationship between engagement of stakeholders and responsibility towards stakeholders within both practitioner and academic literature is a dilemma. There is an apparent soundness of logic to the assumption that the more an organisation engages with its stakeholders the more responsible and accountable the organisation is likely to be towards these stakeholders. This concurrence could exist, and perhaps we believe should exist, but to assume it necessarily does exist is highly problematic. It is problematic not just because it is may be inaccurate but, more importantly, because it may be misleading. I intend to make this case by firstly illustrating that this assumption exists in the literature though it is rarely made explicit. Next I will make a case for why it may not necessarily hold. I will show why it is essential to consider that the relationship between stakeholder engagement and responsibility may be a neutral relationship or, even more importantly, a negative relationship. Finally I will argue that, by erroneously assuming convergence, thus disallowing separation, the writer or practitioner is at risk of, intentionally or unintentionally, deceiving their audience

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy infection alters endogenous retrovirus expression in distinct brain regions of cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Prion diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathies (BSE) are transmissible neurodegenerative diseases which are presumably caused by an infectious conformational isoform of the cellular prion protein. Previous work has provided evidence that in murine prion disease the endogenous retrovirus (ERV) expression is altered in the brain. To determine if prion-induced changes in ERV expression are a general phenomenon we used a non-human primate model for prion disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Cynomolgus macaques (<it>Macaca fasicularis</it>) were infected intracerebrally with BSE-positive brain stem material from cattle and allowed to develop prion disease. Brain tissue from the <it>basis pontis </it>and <it>vermis cerebelli </it>of the six animals and the same regions from four healthy controls were subjected to ERV expression profiling using a retrovirus-specific microarray and quantitative real-time PCR. We could show that Class I gammaretroviruses HERV-E4-1, ERV-9, and MacERV-4 increase expression in BSE-infected macaques. In a second approach, we analysed ERV-K-(HML-2) RNA and protein expression in extracts from the same cynomolgus macaques. Here we found a significant downregulation of both, the macaque ERV-K-(HML-2) Gag protein and RNA in the frontal/parietal cortex of BSE-infected macaques.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We provide evidence that dysregulation of ERVs in response to BSE-infection can be detected on both, the RNA and the protein level. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the differential expression of ERV-derived structural proteins in prion disorders. Our findings suggest that endogenous retroviruses may induce or exacerbate the pathological consequences of prion-associated neurodegeneration.</p

Distal supports, capabilities, and growth‐focused recovery: A comparison of Housing First and the staircase continuum of care

Adults who have substantial histories of homelessness and complex support needs may feel ambivalent about integrating into their communities and find it difficult to do so. Being familiar to and recognized by others as a resident in a neighborhood or community are sources of “distal support” that provide individuals with feelings of belonging to their community and are important to recovery from homelessness. We hypothesized that individuals engaged with Housing First (HF) programs would report more distal support than individuals engaged with traditional homeless services (treatment as usual, TAU), and that distal support would predict more community integration, growth‐related recovery, and achieved capabilities. We analyzed data collected from homeless services users (n = 445) engaged with either HF or TAU in eight European countries. Measures included achieved capabilities, growth‐focused recovery, distal supports, and community integration. Serial mediation analyses confirmed our hypothesis that the effects of HF on growth‐related recovery and achieved capabilities are indirect, mediated by distal supports and community integration. Findings are discussed in relation to the importance of modeling the effects of HF on social and psychological outcomes as indirect and identifying important mediators that translate the effects of HF components on social and psychological outcomes. We also note the importance of case management activities that encourage clients to develop and sustain distal supports with others who live and work in their neighborhoods.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of a new branded UK food composition database for an online dietary assessment tool

The current UK food composition tables are limited, containing ~3300 mostly generic food and drink items. To reflect the wide range of food products available to British consumers and to potentially improve accuracy of dietary assessment, a large UK specific electronic food composition database (FCDB) has been developed. A mapping exercise has been conducted that matched micronutrient data from generic food codes to “Back of Pack” data from branded food products using a semi-automated process. After cleaning and processing, version 1.0 of the new FCDB contains 40,274 generic and branded items with associated 120 macronutrient and micronutrient data and 5669 items with portion images. Over 50% of food and drink items were individually mapped to within 10% agreement with the generic food item for energy. Several quality checking procedures were applied after mapping including; identifying foods above and below the expected range for a particular nutrient within that food group and cross-checking the mapping of items such as concentrated and raw/dried products. The new electronic FCDB has substantially increased the size of the current, publically available, UK food tables. The FCDB has been incorporated into myfood24, a new fully automated online dietary assessment tool and, a smartphone application for weight loss

Can Forel–Ule Index Act as a Proxy of Water Quality in Temperate Waters? Application of Plume Mapping in Liverpool Bay, UK

The use of ocean colour classification algorithms, linked to water quality gradients, can be a useful tool for mapping river plumes in both tropical and temperate systems. This approach has been applied in operational water quality programs in the Great Barrier Reef to map river plumes and assess trends in marine water composition and ecosystem health during flood periods. In this study, we used the Forel–Ule colour classification algorithm for Sentinel-3 OLCI imagery in an automated process to map monthly, annual and long-term plume movement in the temperate coastal system of Liverpool Bay (UK). We compared monthly river plume extent to the river flow and in situ water quality data between 2017–2020. The results showed a strong positive correlation (Spearman’s rho = 0.68) between the river plume extent and the river flow and a strong link between the FUI defined waterbodies and nutrients, SPM, turbidity and salinity, hence the potential of the Forel–Ule index to act as a proxy for water quality in the temperate Liverpool Bay water. The paper discusses how the Forel–Ule index could be used in operational water quality programs to better understand river plumes and the land-based inputs to the coastal zones in UK waters, drawing parallels with methods that have been developed in the GBR and Citclops project. Overall, this paper provides the first insight into the systematic long-term river plume mapping in UK coastal waters using a fast, cost-effective, and reproducible workflow. The study created a novel water assessment typology based on the common physical, chemical and biological ocean colour properties captured in the Forel–Ule index, which could replace the more traditional eutrophication assessment regions centred around strict geographic and political boundaries. Additionally, the Forel–Ule assessment typology is particularly important since it identifies areas of the greatest impact from the land-based loads into the marine environment, and thus potential risks to vulnerable ecosystems

Observational insights into chlorophyll distributions of subtropical South Indian Ocean eddies

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Development of a UK online 24-h dietary assessment tool:Myfood24

Abstract: Assessment of diet in large epidemiological studies can be costly and time consuming. An automated dietary assessment system could potentially reduce researcher burden by automatically coding food records. myfood24 (Measure Your Food on One Day) an online 24-hour dietary assessment tool (with the flexibility to be used for multiple 24hour-dietary recalls or as a food diary), has been developed for use in the UK population. Development of myfood24 was a multi-stage process. Focus groups conducted with three age groups, adolescents (11-18 yrs) (n = 28), adults (19-64 yrs) (n= 24) and older adults (≥65 years) (n= 5) informed the development of the tool, and usability testing was conducted with beta (adolescents n= 14, adults n= 8, older adults n= 1) and live (adolescents n= 70, adults n= 20, older adults n= 4) versions. Median system usability scale (SUS) scores (measured on a scale of 0-100) in adolescents and adults were marginal for the beta version (adolescents median SUS =66, interquartile range (IQR) =20; adults median SUS=68, IQR=40) and good for the live version (adolescents median SUS= 73, IQR =22; adults median SUS= 80, IQR=25). myfood24 is the first online 24 hour dietary recall tool for use with different age groups in the UK. Usability testing indicates that myfood24 is suitable for use in UK adolescents and adults