Behind closed doors: discovering and articulating the essence of the personal tutor's practice

Personal tutoring is a term commonly used in the policy and practice of higher education. Extant literature utilizes the term, but there is no common understanding of its ethos within the higher education profession. Consequently the tacit nature, purpose and outcomes of one-to-one interactions between tutors and students, which have been at the heart of UK higher education since medieval times, risk invasion by policy imperatives such as employability and student retention, or risk marginalization as off-stage activities that occur in invisible space at the periphery of higher education practice. The thesis begins by exploring research and literature on the social and institutional contexts of activities which involve personal, supportive interaction between tutors and students, alongside literature on emotion work and emotional labour, counselling supervision and therapy culture, using a theoretical lens of critical social interactionism. This produced themes which were used to frame part of the data production and analysis. The purpose of the research is to explore the essence of the personal tutorial from the tutor’s practice perspective, and to locate this in its social and institutional contexts, enabling tutors to illuminate the essence of practice that takes place behind closed doors. The focus of data production is the reflective accounts of tutors participating in the study. Ten participants from a range of UK universities produced brief written reflections about one-to-one interactions with students, followed by an individual interaction between researcher and participant, based on exploring the written reflection. These methods are underpinned by critical theory which relates to the emancipatory, transformative outcomes of facilitated critical reflective practice. Participants revealed critical reflection is unlikely to occur in the absence of facilitation. The opportunity for tutors to take part in facilitated, critical reflective practice to explore personal interactions with students produced awareness of what shapes the nature and outcomes of personal tutoring, often resulting in transformation and articulation of practice. Contextualization by participants tended to be limited to institutional and personal factors, there was less engagement with wider social policy issues. There was little evidence that participants were aware of literature and practice models relating to personal tutoring, and little evidence of professional development opportunities in this area. Practice generally occurred in invisible space and time, and tended to be based on personal judgement rather than practice ethos. If personal tutoring is to become established as an essential practice at the heart of higher education, action will be needed to recognize and value its ethos, including social and pedagogical purpose

Sleep dependent learning

Research evidence has indicated an important role for sleep in processes of learning and memory. Evidence has shown that a night of sleep in adults can lead to procedural task performance improvements that are not matched during similar periods awake. This thesis further examines the relationship between sleep and processes of leaming and memory, and investigates sleep and cognitive fiinction in various clinical disorders

The challenge of defining wellbeing

Wellbeing is a growing area of research, yet the question of how it should be defined remains unanswered. This multi-disciplinary review explores past attempts to define wellbeing and provides an overview of the main theoretical perspectives, from the work of Aristotle to the present day. The article argues that many attempts at expressing its nature have focused purely on dimensions of wellbeing, rather than on definition. Among these theoretical perspectives, we highlight the pertinence of dynamic equilibrium theory of wellbeing (Headey & Wearing, 1989), the effect of life challenges on homeostasis (Cummins, 2010) and the lifespan model of development (Hendry & Kloep, 2002). Consequently, we conclude that it would be appropriate for a new definition of wellbeing to centre on a state of equilibrium or balance that can be affected by life events or challenges. The article closes by proposing this new definition, which we believe to be simple, universal in application, optimistic and a basis for measurement. This definition conveys the multi-faceted nature of wellbeing and can help individuals and policy makers move forward in their understanding of this popular term

HLA-F*01:01 presents peptides with N-terminal flexibility and a preferred length of 16 residues.

HLA-F belongs to the non-classical HLA-Ib molecules with a marginal polymorphic nature and tissue-restricted distribution. HLA-F is a ligand of the NK cell receptor KIR3DS1, whose activation initiates an antiviral downstream immune response and lead to delayed disease progression of HIV-1. During the time course of HIV infection, the expression of HLA-F is upregulated while its interaction with KIR3DS1 is diminished. Understanding HLA-F peptide selection and presentation is essential to a comprehensive understanding of this dynamic immune response and the molecules function. In this study, we were able to recover stable pHLA-F*01:01 complexes and analyze the characteristics of peptides naturally presented by HLA-F. These HLA-F-restricted peptides exhibit a non-canonical length without a defined N-terminal anchor. The peptide characteristics lead to a unique presentation profile and influence the stability of the protein. Furthermore, we demonstrate that almost all source proteins of HLA-F-restricted peptides are described to interact with HIV proteins. Understanding the balance switch between HLA-Ia and HLA-F expression and peptide selection will support to understand the role of HLA-F in viral pathogenesis

Barrier-properties of Nup98 FG phases ruled by FG motif identity and inter-FG spacer length

Nup98 FG repeat domains comprise hydrophobic FG motifs linked through uncharged spacers. FG motifs capture nuclear transport receptors (NTRs) during nuclear pore complex (NPC) passage, confer inter-repeat cohesion, and condense the domains into a selective phase with NPC-typical barrier properties. We found that shortening inter-FG spacers enhances cohesion, increases phase density, and tightens such barrier – consistent with a sieve-like phase. Phase separation tolerated mutations of Nup98-typical GLFG motifs, provided the domain-hydrophobicity remained preserved. NTR-entry, however, was sensitive to (certain) deviations from canonical FG motifs, suggesting a co-evolutionary adaptation. Unexpectedly, we found that arginines promote efficient FG-phase entry also by means other than cation-π interactions. Although incompatible with NTR·cargo complexes, a YG phase displayed remarkable transport selectivity, particularly for evolved GFPNTR-variants. GLFG to FSFG mutations made the FG phase hypercohesive, precluding NTR-entry. Longer spacers relieved this hypercohesive phenotype. The antagonism between cohesion and NTR·FG interactions appears thus key to transport selectivity