The Gifted Dimension of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers: Implications for Professional Learning.

The Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2016, v.8.2) acknowledges that gifted and talented students are diverse and require educational provisions that meet their special needs. However, without professional learning in gifted education, teachers are ill-equipped to understand, identify and provide for gifted students. This paper reviews the literature in the field to argue for consideration of a ‘gifted dimension’ as an elaboration of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2011). As all teachers will teach gifted and talented children, it is important to define the elements of quality teaching that are inclusive of high ability students in the Australian context and contribute to a professional learning agenda for all teachers

Media's role in shaping perceptions about plastic pollution : why challenging popular myths matter

Does the prediction that there could be “more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050” concern you? How about reports that “we eat a credit card’s worth of plastic per week”? These are some of the “facts” about plastic that are cited by the media. They are certainly compelling sound bites and help to focus public and policy attention on the pressing topic of plastic pollution, but their scientific basis is far from robust. The scientists whose findings were used to support the “more plastic than fish” claim refuted this. But one scientist who worked on the original source the estimation is based on has now updated his figures. The claim is further undermined by the assumptions the calculation is based on and an underestimate of fish stocks. Research has also found that humans ingest less than a grain of salt of microplastics each week. This means that it would take around 4,700 years to ingest an amount of plastic equivalent to the weight of a credit card. Over the past three years I’ve been interviewing households in the UK, Spain and Germany about plastics as part of a project focused on improving the recycling of plastic packaging. I’ve been struck by the level of confusion people have about the sources of and risks associated with plastic pollution. So, in collaboration with the Hereon Institute of Coastal Environmental Chemistry and communications experts, I have launched an online resource called “Plastic Mythbusters” that aims to debunk popular plastic myths that regularly feature in media

Size structure analysis of the dominant trees in a South African savanna

The population dynamics of six major tree species from the Nylsvley savanna were inferred from their present size structures. An attempt to determine age structure was prevented by confusing ‘growth’ rings. The two Acacia species and three of the dominants from the Burkea savanna show approximately stable age structures. Reduced numbers in some size classes, as a result of unknown past events indicate that the population of mature trees in the future will fluctuate, regardless of future conditions. Sclerocarya birrea has a markedly unstable structure, with no immature trees and no evidence of successful regeneration

HDAC inhibitors increase NRF2-signaling in tumour cells and blunt the efficacy of co-adminstered cytotoxic agents

The NRF2 signalling cascade provides a primary response against electrophilic chemicals and oxidative stress. The activation of NRF2-signaling is anticipated to have adverse clinical consequences; NRF2 is activated in a number of cancers and, additionally, its pharmacological activation by one compound can reduce the toxicity or efficiency of a second agent administered concomitantly. In this work, we have analysed systematically the ability of 152 research, pre-clinical or clinically used drugs to induce an NRF2 response using the MCF7-AREc32 NRF2 reporter. Ten percent of the tested drugs induced an NRF2 response. The NRF2 activators were not restricted to classical cytotoxic alkylating agents but also included a number of emerging anticancer drugs, including an IGF1-R inhibitor (NVP-AEW541), a PIM-1 kinase inhibitor (Pim1 inhibitor 2), a PLK1 inhibitor (BI 2536) and most strikingly seven of nine tested HDAC inhibitors. These findings were further confirmed by demonstrating NRF2-dependent induction of endogenous AKR genes, biomarkers of NRF2 activity. The ability of HDAC inhibitors to stimulate NRF2-signalling did not diminish their own potency as antitumour agents. However, when used to pre-treat cells, they did reduce the efficacy of acrolein. Taken together, our data suggest that the ability of drugs to stimulate NRF2 activity is common and should be investigated as part of the drug-development process

Social issue story lines in British soap opera

This thesis examines the factors which influenced how social issue story lines were developed in the areas of sexual violence, breast cancer and mental distress in British soap opera in the mid to late 1990's. The soap opera production process was examined by conducting interviews with members of production teams from different programmes. This core study was contextualised by additional interviews with production personnel working in other areas of television (e.g. documentary). Spokespeople from different organisations who consulted on story lines or lobbied around different issues were also interviewed. In total, 64 interviews were conducted. The influence of soap story lines on public understandings of an issue was explored in an audience reception study of sexual violence in Brookside (12 focus groups). The soap opera production study identified a number of factors which influence story line development (socio - cultural positioning of the substantive topic, broadcast hierarchy and commercial imperatives). The comparative study of mental distress identified some cross genre constraints (narrative pace, commercial imperatives) and some genre specific issues (access to people with mental health problems). The audience study revealed that people bring their social knowledge of an issue to their viewing experience. Research participants 'read' the meanings of Brookside's story line in remarkably uniform ways however some participants responded differently to certain elements of the story (rejecting empathy with the 'collusive' mother). The story line was demonstrated to have made a lasting impact on Brookside viewers (in relation to the conflicting emotions of the abused child). There were also identifiable links between the intentions of the production team, the nature of representation and audiences responses

The English pronunciation teaching in Europe survey: selected results

The results of EPTiES reveal interesting phenomena across Europe, despite shortcomings in terms of construction and distribution. For example, most respondents are non-native speakers of English and the majority of them rate their own mastery of English pronunciation favourably. However, most feel they had little or no training in how to teach pronunciation, which begs the question of how teachers are coping with this key aspect of language teaching. In relation to target models, RP remains the variety of English which teachers claim to use, whilst recognizing that General American might be preferred by some students. Differences between countries are explored, especially via replies to open-ended questions, allowing a more nuanced picture to emerge for each country. Other survey research is also referred to, in order to contextualise the analyses and implications for teaching English and for training English teacher

The distributed national collection in Wales, conservation on the national agenda

The concept of the Distributed National Collection is a Wales wide collections management initiative that embeds conservation and access issues for collections across Welsh museums and was adopted by CyMAL : Museums Archives and Libraries Wales (CyMAL) for the Welsh Government within the 2010 Museums Strategy. Collections and the stories they tell are the most fundamental of museum assets. In recent years there have been a number of important initiatives to better document, understand and care for museum collections. Whilst this remains by no means a comprehensive achievement with much still to be done, we now have an opportunity to take stock and to develop the concept in practical ways. This paper provides a summary of the evolution and adoption of the concept and identifies, via case studies, the challenges embodied in enacting a genuinely national approach to collections management

A Scientific Perspective on Microplastics in Nature and Society

The best available evidence suggests that microplastics and nanoplastics do not pose a widespread risk to humans or the environment, except in small pockets. But that evidence is limited, and the situation could change if pollution continues at the current rate

Application of Mice Humanised for Cytochrome P450 CYP2D6 to the Study of Tamoxifen Metabolism and Drug-Drug Interaction with Antidepressants

Tamoxifen is an estrogen receptor antagonist used in the treatment of breast cancer. It is a prodrug that is converted by several cytochrome P450 enzymes to a primary metabolite, N-desmethyltamoxifen (NDT), which is then further modified by CYP2D6 to a pharmacologically potent secondary metabolite, 4-hydroxy-N-desmethyltamoxifen (endoxifen). Antidepressants (ADs), which are often coprescribed to patients receiving tamoxifen, are also metabolized by CYP2D6 and evidence suggests that a drug–drug interaction between these agents adversely affects the outcome of tamoxifen therapy by inhibiting endoxifen formation. We evaluated this potentially important drug–drug interaction in vivo in mice humanized for CYP2D6 (hCYP2D6). The rate of conversion of NDT to endoxifen by hCYP2D6 mouse liver microsomes (MLMs) in vitro was similar to that of the most active members of a panel of 13 individual human liver microsomes. Coincubation with quinidine, a CYP2D6 inhibitor, ablated endoxifen generation by hCYP2D6 MLMs. The NDT-hydroxylation activity of wild-type MLMs was 7.4 times higher than that of hCYP2D6, whereas MLMs from Cyp2d knockout animals were inactive. Hydroxylation of NDT correlated with that of bufuralol, a CYP2D6 probe substrate, in the human liver microsome panel. In vitro, ADs of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor class were, by an order of magnitude, more potent inhibitors of NDT hydroxylation by hCYP2D6 MLMs than were compounds of the tricyclic class. At a clinically relevant dose, paroxetine pretreatment inhibited the generation of endoxifen from NDT in hCYP2D6 mice in vivo. These data demonstrate the potential of ADs to affect endoxifen generation and, thereby, the outcome of tamoxifen therapy