Does Study of an Inclusive Education Subject Influence Pre-Service teachers\u27 Concerns and Self-Efficacy about Inclusion?

Survey data were collected from pre-service teachers studying at a large regional Australian university. These data were examined with the purpose of determining whether pre-service teachers’ views (and concerns) about inclusion and their confidence to teach in inclusive classrooms had changed as a result of studying an inclusive education subject and undertaking a practicum linked to that subject. The results of an analysis based on mean values indicated that the various concerns, namely, resources, acceptance, workplace, and academic standards, did not change markedly as a consequence of the subject and practicum experiences. This analysis also showed a hierarchy of concerns running from resources through to standards. Moreover, the results of a MANCOVA, with self-efficacy serving as the covariate and using the concerns measures as the dependent variables and pre/posttest condition as the independent variable, revealed no significant difference between the various measures on the condition. The implications of the results for teacher education programs are considered

Academic boredom and the perceived course experiences of final year Education Studies students at university

This work explores the relationships between academic boredom and the perceived course experiences of 179 final year Education Studies students attending a single university in England. Adopting a mixed-methods design, with data collection employing a combination of questionnaires and individual research interviews, findings suggest that all participants exhibited some measurable disposition towards academic boredom with traditional lectures and work leading to the completion of assignments the main sites and triggers for the actual onset of academic boredom itself. Amid overwhelmingly encouraging responses from course expectations to course demands, reflecting the successful promotion of deep ways of working, as well as a clear sense of satisfaction with their teaching and learning environment overall, cluster analysis reveals the presence of five structurally related groups of students with profiles which help identify those typically more engaged and effective learners from others. Path analysis reveals a series of complex inter-connections with academic boredom emerging as a strong and direct predictor of surface ways and organised effort as well as contributing indirectly towards degree outcome as a whole. The implications for boredom mitigation are considered

Pyriproxyfen is metabolized by P450s associated with pyrethroid resistance in An. gambiae.

Pyrethroid resistance is widespread in the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae leading to concerns about the future efficacy of bednets with pyrethroids as the sole active ingredient. The incorporation of pyriproxyfen (PPF), a juvenile hormone analogue, into pyrethroid treated bednets is being trialed in Africa. Pyrethroid resistance is commonly associated with elevated levels of P450 expression including CYPs 6M2, 6P2, 6P3, 6P4, 6P5, 6Z2 and 9J5. Having expressed these P450s in E. coli we find all are capable of metabolizing PPF. Inhibition of these P450s by permethrin, deltamethrin and PPF was also examined. Deltamethrin and permethrin were moderate inhibitors (IC50 1-10 μM) of diethoxyfluorescein (DEF) activity for all P450s apart from CYP6Z2 (IC50 > 10 μM), while PPF displayed weaker inhibition of all P450s (IC50 > 10 μM) except CYP's 6Z2 and 6P2 (IC50 1-10 μM). We found evidence of low levels of cross resistance between PPF and other insecticide classes by comparing the efficacy of PPF in inhibiting metamorphosis and inducing female sterility in an insecticide susceptible strain of An. gambiae and a multiple resistant strain from Cote d'Ivoire

An application of the revised ‘Lecturer Self-Efficacy Questionnaire’: an evidence-based route for transformational change

This article presents findings arising from the first UK application of a revised 70-item lecturer self-efficacy questionnaire recently developed for use in the Australian higher education context. Intended to probe and systematically measure confidence in the core functions of research, teaching and other academic or service-related activities among lecturers, the institutional case-study presented here suggests that this instrument has considerable diagnostic potential for leaders, managers and administrators wishing to explore operational aspects of policy, evaluate strategy and initiate professional dialogue at a variety of levels. Its indicated value as a diagnostic tool suggests a relevance not only to higher but also to further education, where degree-level provision is established and likely to increase. Following an earlier rigorous reassessment and re-evaluation of the questionnaire’s validity and reliability, including a robust statistical analysis of its associated scales and subscales, findings indicate that respondents felt most confident across all aspects of teaching – the core function which also occupied most of their time. Perhaps surprisingly for the institution involved in the case study, research – which occupied the least amount of time – generally displayed the most pronounced confidence hierarchy, from activities attached to data collection and analysis to leading funded research projects. Outcomes for other academic or service-related activities were generally mixed, but confidence attached to internal academic events was higher than that linked to external ones. Taken together, the findings, including the effects of career stage, qualifications, gender, research output and workload distribution, were considered sufficient to initiate an appropriate strategic response directed towards transformational change. The limitations of the questionnaire are considered in detail

Pre-cooling for endurance exercise performance in the heat: a systematic review.

PMCID: PMC3568721The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/10/166. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Endurance exercise capacity diminishes under hot environmental conditions. Time to exhaustion can be increased by lowering body temperature prior to exercise (pre-cooling). This systematic literature review synthesizes the current findings of the effects of pre-cooling on endurance exercise performance, providing guidance for clinical practice and further research

Randomised controlled trial combining vitamin E-functionalised chocolate with physical exercise to reduce the risk of protein-energy malnutrition in predementia aged people: study protocol for Choko-Age

Objective: Protein-energy malnutrition and the subsequent muscle wasting (sarcopenia) are common ageing complications. It is knowing to be also associated with dementia. Our programme will test the cytoprotective functions of vitamin E combined with the cortisol-lowering effect of chocolate polyphenols (PP), in combination with muscle anabolic effect of adequate dietary protein intake and physical exercise to prevent the age-dependent decline of muscle mass and its key underpinning mechanisms including mitochondrial function, and nutrient metabolism in muscle in the elderly. Methods and analysis: In 2020, a 6-month double-blind randomised controlled trial in 75 predementia older people was launched to prevent muscle mass loss, in respond to the 'Joint Programming Initiative A healthy diet for a healthy life'. In the run-in phase, participants will be stabilised on a protein-rich diet (0.9-1.0 g protein/kg ideal body weight/day) and physical exercise programme (high-intensity interval training specifically developed for these subjects). Subsequently, they will be randomised into three groups (1:1:1). The study arms will have a similar isocaloric diet and follow a similar physical exercise programme. Control group (n=25) will maintain the baseline diet; intervention groups will consume either 30 g/day of dark chocolate containing 500 mg total PP (corresponding to 60 mg epicatechin) and 100 mg vitamin E (as RRR-alpha-tocopherol) (n=25); or the high polyphenol chocolate without additional vitamin E (n=25). Muscle mass will be the primary endpoint. Other outcomes are neurocognitive status and previously identified biomolecular indices of frailty in predementia patients. Muscle biopsies will be collected to assess myocyte contraction and mitochondrial metabolism. Blood and plasma samples will be analysed for laboratory endpoints including nutrition metabolism and omics. Ethics and dissemination: All the ethical and regulatory approvals have been obtained by the ethical committees of the Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata of Verona with respect to scientific content and compliance with applicable research and human subjects' regulation. Given the broader interest of the society toward undernutrition in the elderly, we identify four main target audiences for our research activity: national and local health systems, both internal and external to the project; targeted population (the elderly); general public; and academia. These activities include scientific workshops, public health awareness campaigns, project dedicated website and publication is scientific peer-review journals. Trial registration number: NCT05343611

Academic boredom among students in higher education: a mixed-methods exploration of characteristics, contributors and consequences

Academic boredom contributes usually adversely towards student engagement, learning and overall performance across a diverse range of settings including universities. The formal study of academic boredom in higher education remains, however, a relatively underdeveloped field and one surprisingly neglected in the UK. Adopting contemporary perspectives rooted in Control-Value Theory, details of a mixed-methods exploration of academic boredom among 235 final year undergraduates attending a single university in England are presented. Quantitative data from the principal survey instrument employed included measurement using the BPS-UKHE, a revised boredom proneness scale developed for use across the sector. Qualitative data arose primarily from ten research interviews. Findings indicate that about half of all respondents reported experiencing the most common precursors of academic boredom at least occasionally (e.g. monotony, repetition, time slowing down, lack of desire for challenge, loss of concentration and motivation to learn, restlessness); traditional lectures with a perceived excess and inappropriate use of PowerPoint stimulating the actual onset of boredom more than other interactive forms of delivery. Coping strategies when bored included daydreaming, texting and turning to social media. Boredom also occurred during the completion of assignments used to assess modules. Quantitative and qualitative differences between those identified as more prone to boredom than others extended to self-study (fewer hours), attendance (good rather than excellent) and final degree outcome (lower marks and a lower proportion of first and upper second class degree awards). Findings are considered valuable empirically, as well as theoretically, leading to recommendations surrounding boredom mitigation which challenge cultural traditions and pedagogical norms

Post-postfeminism? New feminist visibilities in postfeminist times

This article contributes to debates about the value and utility of the notion of postfeminism for a seemingly “new” moment marked by a resurgence of interest in feminism in the media and among young women. The paper reviews current understandings of postfeminism and criticisms of the term’s failure to speak to or connect with contemporary feminism. It offers a defence of the continued importance of a critical notion of postfeminism, used as an analytical category to capture a distinctive contradictory-but-patterned sensibility intimately connected to neoliberalism. The paper raises questions about the meaning of the apparent new visibility of feminism and highlights the multiplicity of different feminisms currently circulating in mainstream media culture – which exist in tension with each other. I argue for the importance of being able to “think together” the rise of popular feminism alongside and in tandem with intensified misogyny. I further show how a postfeminist sensibility informs even those media productions that ostensibly celebrate the new feminism. Ultimately, the paper argues that claims that we have moved “beyond” postfeminism are (sadly) premature, and the notion still has much to offer feminist cultural critics

Deoxyribonucleic acid methylation profiling of single human blastocysts by methylated CpG-island amplification coupled with CpG-island microarray

Objective To study whether methylated CpG-island (CGI) amplification coupled with microarray (MCAM) can be used to generate DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) methylation profiles from single human blastocysts. Design A pilot microarray study with methylated CpG-island amplification applied to human blastocyst genomic DNA and hybridized on CpG-island microarrays. Setting University research laboratory. Patient(s) Five cryopreserved sibling 2-pronuclear zygotes that were surplus to requirements for clinical treatment by in vitro fertilization were donated with informed consent from a patient attending Bourn Hall Clinic, Cambridge, United Kingdom. Intervention(s) None. Main Outcome Measure(s) Successful generation of genome-wide DNA methylation profiles at CpG islands from individual human blastocysts, with common genomic regions of DNA methylation identified between embryos. Result(s) Between 472 and 734 CpG islands were methylated in each blastocyst, with 121 CpG islands being commonly methylated in all 5 blastocysts. A further 159 CGIs were commonly methylated in 4 of the 5 tested blastocysts. Methylation was observed at a number of CGIs within imprinted-gene, differentially methylated regions (DMRs), including placental and preimplantation-specific DMRs. Conclusion(s) The MCAM method is capable of providing comprehensive DNA methylation data in individual human blastocysts