Troubling "understanding mathematics-in-depth": Its role in the identity work of student-teachers in England

Copyright @ The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.comThis article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.In this paper, we focus on an initiative in England devised to prepare non-mathematics graduates to train as secondary mathematics teachers through a 6-month Mathematics Enhancement Course (MEC) to boost their subject knowledge. The course documentation focuses on the need to develop “understanding mathematics in-depth” in students in order for them to become successful mathematics teachers. We take a poststructural approach, so we are not interested in asking what such an understanding is, about the value of this approach or about the effectiveness of the MECs in developing this understanding in their participants. Instead we explore what positions this discourse of “understanding mathematics in-depth” makes available to MEC students. We do this by looking in detail at the “identity work” of two students, analysing how they use and are used by this discourse to position themselves as future mathematics teachers. In doing so, we show how even benign-looking social practices such as “understanding mathematics in-depth” are implicated in practices of inclusion and exclusion. We show this through detailed readings of interviews with two participants, one of whom fits with the dominant discourses in the MEC and the other who, despite passing the MEC, experiences tensions between her national identity work and MEC discourses. We argue that it is vital to explore “identity work” within teacher education contexts to ensure that becoming a successful mathematics teacher is equally available to all.King’s College Londo

Altering Dynamics of Autonomic Processing Therapy (ADAPT) trial: a novel, targeted treatment for reducing anxiety in joint hypermobility

Background Hypermobility is a poorly recognised and understood musculoskeletal disorder thought to affect around 20% of the population. Hypermobility is associated with reduced physiological and psychological functioning and quality of life and is a known risk factor for the development of an anxiety disorder. To date, no evidence-based, targeted treatment for anxiety in the context of hypermobility exists. The present intervention (ADAPT—Altering Dynamics of Autonomic Processing Therapy) is a novel therapy combining bio-behavioural training with cognitive approaches from clinical health psychology targeting the catastrophisation of internal sensations, with aim to improve autonomic trait prediction error. Method Eighty individuals with diagnosed hypermobility will be recruited and the efficacy of ADAPT to treat anxiety will be compared to an Emotion-Focused Supportive Therapy (EFST) comparator therapy in a randomised controlled trial. The primary treatment target will be post therapy score on the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and secondary outcomes will also be considered in relation to interoception, depression, alexithymia, social and work adjustment, panic symptoms and dissociation. Due to COVID restrictions, the intervention will be moved to online delivery and qualitative assessment of treatment tolerance to online therapy will also be assessed. Discussion Online delivery of an intervention targeting anxiety would improve the quality of life for those experiencing anxiety disorder and help to reduce the £11.7 billion that anxiety disorders cost the UK economy annually. Trial registration World Health Organization ISRCTN17018615. Registered on 20th February 2019; trial protocol version

Young people's uses of celebrity: Class, gender and 'improper' celebrity

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 34(1), 2013, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01596306.2012.698865.In this article, we explore the question of how celebrity operates in young people's everyday lives, thus contributing to the urgent need to address celebrity's social function. Drawing on data from three studies in England on young people's perspectives on their educational and work futures, we show how celebrity operates as a classed and gendered discursive device within young people's identity work. We illustrate how young people draw upon class and gender distinctions that circulate within celebrity discourses (proper/improper, deserving/undeserving, talented/talentless and respectable/tacky) as they construct their own identities in relation to notions of work, aspiration and achievement. We argue that these distinctions operate as part of neoliberal demands to produce oneself as a ‘subject of value’. However, some participants produced readings that show ambivalence and even resistance to these dominant discourses. Young people's responses to celebrity are shown to relate to their own class and gender position.The Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science Engineering and Technology

Collagen Fiber Regulation in Human Pediatric Aortic Valve Development and Disease

Congenital aortic valve stenosis (CAVS) affects up to 10% of the world population without medical therapies to treat the disease. New molecular targets are continually being sought that can halt CAVS progression. Collagen deregulation is a hallmark of CAVS yet remains mostly undefined. Here, histological studies were paired with high resolution accurate mass (HRAM) collagen-targeting proteomics to investigate collagen fiber production with collagen regulation associated with human AV development and pediatric end-stage CAVS (pCAVS). Histological studies identified collagen fiber realignment and unique regions of high-density collagen in pCAVS. Proteomic analysis reported specific collagen peptides are modified by hydroxylated prolines (HYP), a post-translational modification critical to stabilizing the collagen triple helix. Quantitative data analysis reported significant regulation of collagen HYP sites across patient categories. Non-collagen type ECM proteins identified (26 of the 44 total proteins) have direct interactions in collagen synthesis, regulation, or modification. Network analysis identified BAMBI (BMP and Activin Membrane Bound Inhibitor) as a potential upstream regulator of the collagen interactome. This is the first study to detail the collagen types and HYP modifications associated with human AV development and pCAVS. We anticipate that this study will inform new therapeutic avenues that inhibit valvular degradation in pCAVS and engineered options for valve replacement

The Implementation and Sustainment Facilitation Strategy Improved Implementation Effectiveness and Intervention Effectiveness: Results from a Cluster-Randomized, Type 2 Hybrid Trial

Background: Substance use disorders (SUDs) among people with HIV are both prevalent and problematic. The Substance Abuse Treatment to HIV care project was funded to test the Implementation and Sustainment Facilitation (ISF) strategy as an adjunct to the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) strategy for integrating a motivational interviewing-based brief intervention (MIBI) for SUDs within HIV community-based organizations. Methods: Using a cluster-randomized, type 2 hybrid trial design, 39 HIV organizations were randomized to either (1) ATTC (n = 19) or (2) ATTC + ISF (n = 20). Each HIV organization identified two staff members to be prepared to implement the MIBI (N = 78). Subsequently, during the implementation phase, HIV organizations in each condition randomized client participants (N = 824) to one of the two intervention conditions: usual care (UC; n = 415) or UC + MIBI (n = 409). Both staff-level outcomes and client-level outcomes were examined. Results: The ISF strategy had a significant impact on the implementation effectiveness (i.e., the consistency and the quality of implementation; β = .65, p = .01) but not on time-to-proficiency (β = −.02) or level-of-sustainment (β = .09). In addition, the ISF strategy was found to have a significant impact on the intervention effectiveness (the effectiveness of the MIBI), at least in terms of significantly decreasing the odds (odds ratio = 0.11, p = .02) of clients using their primary substance daily during follow-up. Conclusion: The ISF strategy was found to be an effective adjunct to the ATTC strategy in terms of implementation effectiveness and intervention effectiveness. It is recommended that future efforts to integrate the project’s MIBI for SUD within HIV organizations use the ATTC + ISF strategy. However, given the ISF strategy did not have a significant impact on level-of-sustainment, implementation research testing the extent to which the ATTC + ISF strategy can be significantly enhanced through effective sustainment strategies is warranted. Substance use among people living with HIV is associated with increased mental health problems, worse medication adherence, and worse HIV viral suppression. Increasing substance use-related services in HIV community-based organizations is an important public health need. The Substance Abuse Treatment to HIV care project tested two strategies for helping HIV organizations implement a brief intervention (BI) designed to motivate clients to decrease their substance use. The project also tested if receiving a BI improved clients’ outcome. Two staff from each of the 39 participating organizations were taught how to deliver the BI using the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) training strategy (online and in-person training, monthly feedback, and coaching). Half of the organizations also received the Implementation and Sustainment Facilitation (ISF) strategy, which included monthly meetings with an ISF coach for the two BI staff and one or more leadership staff from the organization. Organizations that received both the ATTC and ISF strategies delivered more BIs and higher quality BIs than organizations that only received the ATTC strategy. In addition, clients receiving BIs at organizations that received both strategies were more likely to decrease their substance use. However, receiving both strategies did not improve how quickly staff learned to deliver the BI or improve the number of BIs delivered during the project’s 6-month sustainment phase. Future research focused on implementing BIs within HIV organizations should consider using the ATTC and ISF strategies while also seeking to enhance the strategies to improve sustainment

Early detection of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity in rats by its cardiac metabolic signature assessed with hyperpolarized MRI.

Doxorubicin (DOX) is a widely used chemotherapeutic agent that can cause serious cardiotoxic side effects culminating in congestive heart failure (HF). There are currently no clinical imaging techniques or biomarkers available to detect DOX-cardiotoxicity before functional decline. Mitochondrial dysfunction is thought to be a key factor driving functional decline, though real-time metabolic fluxes have never been assessed in DOX-cardiotoxicity. Hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can assess real-time metabolic fluxes in vivo. Here we show that cardiac functional decline in a clinically relevant rat-model of DOX-HF is preceded by a change in oxidative mitochondrial carbohydrate metabolism, measured by hyperpolarized MRI. The decreased metabolic fluxes were predominantly due to mitochondrial loss and additional mitochondrial dysfunction, and not, as widely assumed hitherto, to oxidative stress. Since hyperpolarized MRI has been successfully translated into clinical trials this opens up the potential to test cancer patients receiving DOX for early signs of cardiotoxicity

Galaxy Zoo: Passive Red Spirals

We study the spectroscopic properties and environments of red spiral galaxies found by the Galaxy Zoo project. By carefully selecting face-on, disk dominated spirals we construct a sample of truly passive disks (not dust reddened, nor dominated by old stellar populations in a bulge). As such, our red spirals represent an interesting set of possible transition objects between normal blue spirals and red early types. We use SDSS data to investigate the physical processes which could have turned these objects red without disturbing their morphology. Red spirals prefer intermediate density regimes, however there are no obvious correlations between red spiral properties and environment - environment alone is not sufficient to determine if a spiral will become red. Red spirals are a small fraction of spirals at low masses, but are a significant fraction at large stellar masses - massive galaxies are red independent of morphology. We confirm that red spirals have older stellar popns and less recent star formation than the main spiral population. While the presence of spiral arms suggests that major star formation cannot have ceased long ago, we show that these are not recent post-starbursts, so star formation must have ceased gradually. Intriguingly, red spirals are ~4 times more likely than normal spirals to host optically identified Seyfert or LINER, with most of the difference coming from LINERs. We find a curiously large bar fraction in the red spirals suggesting that the cessation of star formation and bar instabilities are strongly correlated. We conclude by discussing the possible origins. We suggest they may represent the very oldest spiral galaxies which have already used up their reserves of gas - probably aided by strangulation, and perhaps bar instabilities moving material around in the disk.Comment: MNRAS in press, 20 pages, 15 figures (v3

Study of user-experience of an objective test (QbTest) to aid ADHD assessment and medication management: a multi-methods approach

Background The diagnosis and monitoring of Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically relies on subjective reports and observations. Objective continuous performance tests (CPTs) have been incorporated into some services to support clinical decision making. However, the feasibility and acceptability of adding such a test into routine practice is unknown. The study aimed to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of adding an objective computerised test to the routine assessment and monitoring of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinicians (n = 10) and families (parents/young people, n = 20) who participated in a randomised controlled trial. Additionally, the same clinicians (n = 10) and families (n = 76) completed a survey assessing their experience of the QbTest. The study took place in child and adolescent mental health and community paediatric clinics across the UK. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed. Results Interviewed clinicians and families valued the QbTest for providing an objective, valid assessment of symptoms. The QbTest was noted to facilitate communication between clinicians, families and schools. However, whereas clinicians were more unanimous on the usefulness of the QbTest, survey findings showed that, although the majority of families found the test useful, less than half felt the QbTest helped them understand the clinician’s decision making around diagnosis and medication. The QbTest was seen as a potentially valuable tool to use early in the assessment process to streamline the care pathway. Although clinicians were conscious of the additional costs, these could be offset by reductions in time to diagnosis and the delivery of the test by a Healthcare Assistant. Conclusions The findings indicate the QbTest is an acceptable and feasible tool to implement in routine clinical settings. Clinicians should be mindful to discuss the QbTest results with families to enable their understanding and engagement with the process. Further findings from definitive trials are required to understand the cost/benefit; however, the findings from this study support the feasibility and acceptability of integrating QbTest in the ADHD care pathway

Navigating to new frontiers in behavioral neuroscience: traditional neuropsychological tests predict human performance on a rodent-inspired radial-arm maze

We constructed an 11-arm, walk-through, human radial-arm maze (HRAM) as a translational instrument to compare existing methodology in the areas of rodent and human learning and memory research. The HRAM, utilized here, serves as an intermediary test between the classic rat radial-arm maze (RAM) and standard human neuropsychological and cognitive tests. We show that the HRAM is a useful instrument to examine working memory ability, explore the relationships between rodent and human memory and cognition models, and evaluate factors that contribute to human navigational ability. One-hundred-and-fifty-seven participants were tested on the HRAM, and scores were compared to performance on a standard cognitive battery focused on episodic memory, working memory capacity, and visuospatial ability. We found that errors on the HRAM increased as working memory demand became elevated, similar to the pattern typically seen in rodents, and that for this task, performance appears similar to Miller's classic description of a processing-inclusive human working memory capacity of 7 ± 2 items. Regression analysis revealed that measures of working memory capacity and visuospatial ability accounted for a large proportion of variance in HRAM scores, while measures of episodic memory and general intelligence did not serve as significant predictors of HRAM performance. We present the HRAM as a novel instrument for measuring navigational behavior in humans, as is traditionally done in basic science studies evaluating rodent learning and memory, thus providing a useful tool to help connect and translate between human and rodent models of cognitive functioning