An auto-ethnographic study of foreign and native language education in the United States of America, the Dominican Republic, and Spain

The paper is a reflexive ethnography documenting the researcher’s change and growth “as a result of doing fieldwork” (Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2011, p. 278) in the United States of America, the Dominican Republic, and Spain. The purpose of this research is to examine and reflect on the researcher’s journey of acquiring language proficiency in Spanish, developing cultural competence, and navigating cross-cultural interactions. This paper also explores how readily students may be able to access language education in both the native and foreign realms and examines the emphasis placed on language education in each of the countries, as observed by the researcher. These concepts are explored in depth through a first-person auto-ethnographic style that highlights a personal narrative accompanied by analysis through the lenses of two specific theorists dealing with language acquisition and intercultural sensitivities and competencies

Policy, context and schooling: The education of English learners in rural new destinations

The number of immigrant English learners attending schools in new destinations across the US is rapidly increasing. We draw on the sociological scholarship on ΓÇ£contexts of receptionΓÇ¥ and scholarship on sociocultural approaches to policy to examine the educational contexts faced by immigrant English learners in new destination communities and how these contexts shape their educational experiences. Using data from qualitative case studies of rural school districts in Wisconsin, we examined local discourses surrounding new immigrant populations, and how they shaped the ways in which local educators interpreted and enacted educational policies on the ground. We argue that policy implementation is influenced by local understandings of immigrant English learners and their educational needs, such that potentially inclusive educational policies become assimilative in practice

The affordances of an arts-based approach for building opportunities for young people's learning

This chapter sets out from the empirical basis of data collected in a digital storytelling activity implemented as part of the IEP! project, in which different creative practices and methods come into play. Considering the complex codependence of elements - mediational tools and artefacts, roles and identities, language/ s, histories, space, time, activities, etc. - that converge in and around a handicraft activity carried out in one session, we draw on the notion of ecology to consider the opportunities for young people's (language) learning that emerge therein. The analysis focuses on how: 1) life histories create a panoramicspace for learning; 2) the youth develop self- knowledge in the ways they manage their activity and their relationships; and 3) the youth harness the affordances of the context for managing their engagement and alignment in the activity and with others

Surrey-Hampshire border ware ceramics in seventeenth-century English North America

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Surrey-Hampshire Border ware ceramics were among of the most popular and widely used ceramics in southern England. This ceramic, produced along the Surrey-Hampshire border, was also shipped to English colonies in North America throughout the seventeenth century. This thesis will explore the types of vessels uncovered on archaeological sites in Newfoundland, New England and the Chesapeake, and examine the similarities and differences in the forms available to various colonists during this time period. By comparing the collections of Border ware found at various sites it is possible to not only determine what vessel forms are present in Northeastern English North America, but to determine the similarities and differences in vessels based on temporal, geographic, social or economic factors. A comparative study of Border ware also provides information on the socio-economic status of the colonists and on trading networks between England and North America during the seventeenth century

Change in parent attitudes during participation in certain parenthood in a free nation study-discussion groups

It was the purpose of this investigation to determine (l) whether there was a significant change in parental attitudes toward child-rearing practices as measured by the University of Southern California Parent Attitude Survey during participation in certain Parenthood in a Free Nation study-discussion groups, and (2) whether the amount and direction of any change in attitudes was related to certain variables such as age and education of participants. The U.S.C. Parent Attitude Survey was administered to persons participating in Parenthood in Free Nation study-discussion groups at the beginning of their first class meeting and again at the end of their last class meeting. Additional information was secured from the participants on a cover sheet at the time of the first administration of the instrument, and the participant's subjective evaluation of his change in attitude was secured through a brief questionnaire completed at the time of the second administration of the instrument. The final sample consisted of 59 persons divided among five groups

Detection of specific HPV subtypes responsible for the pathogenesis of condylomata acuminata.

BACKGROUND: The low-risk human papillomavirus types 6 and 11 are responsible for approximately 90% of anogenital wart cases, with approximately 190,000 new and recurrent cases reported in the UK in 2010. The UK has recently selected the quadrivalent HPV vaccine, which conveys protection against both HPV6 and HPV 11, as part of its immunisation programme for 2012 and it is expected that this will reduce disease burden in the UK. The aims of the study were to evaluate current strategies used for the monitoring of HPV infection in genital warts and to assess the suitability of laser-capture microdissection (LCM) as a technique to improve the understanding of the natural history of HPV types associated with genital wart lesions. METHODS: DNA and RNA were extracted from whole wart, surface swabs and LCM sections from 23 patients. HPV types present were determined using the Linear Array HPV Genotyping Test (Roche), with HPV DNA viral load and mRNA expression investigated using qPCR and qRT-PCR, respectively. RESULTS: Results indicated that swabbing the surface of warts does not accurately reflect potential causative HPV types present within a wart lesion, multiple HPV types being present on the surface of the wart that are absent in the lower layers of tissue isolated by LCM. Although it was shown that HPV DNA viral load does not directly correlate with HPV mRNA load, the presence of both DNA and mRNA from a single HPV type suggested a causative role in lesion development in 8/12 (66.6%) of patients analysed, with dual infections seen in 4/12 (33.3%) cases. HPV 6 and HPV 11 were present in more than 90% of the lesions examined. CONCLUSIONS: Surface swabbing of warts does not necessarily reflect the causative HPV types. HPV type specific DNA and mRNA loads do not correlate. HPV 6 and 11 were likely to be causally involved in over 90% of the lesions. Dual infections were also found, and further studies are required to determine the biological and clinical nature of dual/multiple infections and to establish the relationship of multiple HPV types within a single lesion.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Semiosis and critical cosmopolitanism: a transmodal analysis of an ethical dilemma in transnational communication between youth

Este artículo parte de un dilema ético que surgió al usar videos para la comunicación transnacional en un proyecto global de educación e investigación en el cual participaban jóvenes. Analizamos datos que permiten la reconstrucción del proceso de producción y recepción de uno de los videos en particular producido por adolescentes participantes de Cataluña para un grupo de jóvenes de Uganda. Los datos incluyen el video en sí y otros datos etnográficos (observación del proceso de creación y entrevistas y grupos de discusión realizados a posteriori). El video fue considerado por las coordinadoras/investigadoras como potencialmente comprometedor para los jóvenes ugandeses participantes en el proyecto ya que, sin acceso a los datos etnográficos que sugieren lo contrario, se podría entender que la película cuenta una historia de homosexualidad (que, a diferencia de Cataluña, es perseguida criminalmente en Uganda). Por precaución, el video fue retirado de circulación. El análisis se enmarca en torno a las cinco complejidades de las transmodalidades (Hawkins, 2018) para explorar los elementos semióticos que emergen de las representaciones audiovisuales en diversos contextos y culturas. El análisis también apunta a los argumentos morales para compartir la producción creativa de los estudiantes catalanes con los jóvenes ugandeses o para eliminarla de circulación, basándonos también, para este propósito, en la noción de cosmopolitismo crítico.The article is motivated by an ethical dilemma encountered in the use of film for transnational communication in a global youth education and research project. We analyse data that enable the reconstruction of the process of production and reception of one particular film produced by teenagers at a project site in Catalonia for peers in Uganda. The data include the video itself and other ethnographic data (observations of the process, and post hoc interview and focus group). The video was deemed by the project coordinators/researchers to be potentially compromising for the Ugandan youth participating in the project as, without access to the ethnographic data that suggests otherwise, the film might be understood to tell a story of homosexuality (which is criminally persecuted in Uganda, unlike in Catalonia). The video was precautionarily removed from circulation. The analysis is framed around the five complexities of transmodalities (Hawkins, 2018) to explore semiosis as carried by audiovisual representations across contexts and cultures. The analysis will also speak to the moral arguments for sharing the Catalan students’ creative production with the Ugandan youth, or for removing it from circulation, drawing also on the notion of critical cosmopolitanism for this purpose

Insights into Platypus Population Structure and History from Whole-Genome Sequencing

The platypus is an egg-laying mammal which, alongside the echidna, occupies a unique place in the mammalian phylogenetic tree. Despite widespread interest in its unusual biology, little is known about its population structure or recent evolutionary history. To provide new insights into the dispersal and demographic history of this iconic species, we sequenced the genomes of 57 platypuses from across the whole species range in eastern mainland Australia and Tasmania. Using a highly improved reference genome, we called over 6.7 M SNPs, providing an informative genetic data set for population analyses. Our results show very strong population structure in the platypus, with our sampling locations corresponding to discrete groupings between which there is no evidence for recent gene flow. Genome-wide data allowed us to establish that 28 of the 57 sampled individuals had at least a third-degree relative among other samples from the same river, often taken at different times. Taking advantage of a sampled family quartet, we estimated the de novo mutation rate in the platypus at 7.0 × 10−9/bp/generation (95% CI 4.1 × 10−9–1.2 × 10−8/bp/generation). We estimated effective population sizes of ancestral populations and haplotype sharing between current groupings, and found evidence for bottlenecks and long-term population decline in multiple regions, and early divergence between populations in different regions. This study demonstrates the power of whole-genome sequencing for studying natural populations of an evolutionarily important species.We thank the High-Throughput Genomics Group at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics (funded by Wellcome Trust grant reference 090532/Z/09/Z) for the generation of sequencing data. This work was supported by a Wellcome Trust Core Award (090532/Z/09/Z) to P.D. and by a University of Sydney StartUp Research grant to J.G

Body Temperature In Captive Long-Beaked Echidnas (Zaglossus Bartoni)

The routine occurrence of both short-term (daily) and long-term torpor (hibernation) in short-beaked echidnas, but not platypus, raises questions about the third monotreme genus, New Guinea's Zaglossus. We measured body temperatures (Tb) with implanted data loggers over three and a half years in two captive Zaglossus bartoni at Taronga Zoo, Sydney. The modal Tb of both long-beaks was 31 degrees C, similar to non-hibernating short-beaked echidnas, Tachyglossus aculeatus, in the wild (30-32 degrees C) and to platypus (32 degrees C), suggesting that this is characteristic of normothermic monotremes. Tb cycled daily, usually over 2-4 degrees C. There were some departures from this pattern to suggest periods of inactivity but nothing to indicate the occurrence of long-term torpor. In contrast, two short-beaked echidnas monitored concurrently in the same pen showed extended periods of low Tb in the cooler months (hibernation) and short periods of torpor at any time of the year, as they do in the wild. Whether torpor or hibernation occurs in Zaglossus in the wild or in juveniles remains unknown. However, given that the environment in this study was conducive to hibernation in short-beaks, which do not easily enter torpor in captivity, and their large size, we think that torpor in wild adult Zaglossus is unlikely