Adolescents beliefs of the role of self concept and government policy on their re-entry into school in Abia State

Promoting quality education aimed at improving the quality of life has been a global challenge. In Nigeria the Federal Government, educator, counselors, non-governmental bodies and the society at large have been concerned and challenged by the ways and means of catering for the leaming needs of adolescents who for one reason or the other dropped out of school. This study investigated the influence of government policy and self-concept on re-entry of adolescents into school in Abia State. Four continuing education and two skills acquisition schools were randomly selected for the study. One hundred and sixty two (162) adolescents who re-enrolled in these schools participated in the study. Two research questions were raised for this study. The data for the study was collected using a questionnaire developed and validated by the researchers and experts in the areas of study. Analysis of data collected showed that both government policy and self-concept influenced adolescents re-entry into school, but that self-concept was a stronger factor. It was therefore recommended that stronger and more influential government policies should be put in place to encourage more adolescents to go back to school, and that individual and group counselling should be used in schools to boost students self concept

Conserved role of intragenic DNA methylation in regulating alternative promoters

Although it is known that the methylation of DNA in 5' promoters suppresses gene expression, the role of DNA methylation in gene bodies is unclear. In mammals, tissue-and cell type-specific methylation is present in a small percentage of 5' CpG island (CGI) promoters, whereas a far greater proportion occurs across gene bodies, coinciding with highly conserved sequences. Tissue-specific intragenic methylation might reduce, or, paradoxically, enhance transcription elongation efficiency. Capped analysis of gene expression (CAGE) experiments also indicate that transcription commonly initiates within and between genes. To investigate the role of intragenic methylation, we generated a map of DNA methylation from the human brain encompassing 24.7 million of the 28 million CpG sites. From the dense, high-resolution coverage of CpG islands, the majority of methylated CpG islands were shown to be in intragenic and intergenic regions, whereas less than 3% of CpG islands in 5' promoters were methylated. The CpG islands in all three locations overlapped with RNA markers of transcription initiation, and unmethylated CpG islands also overlapped significantly with trimethylation of H3K4, a histone modification enriched at promoters. The general and CpG-island-specific patterns of methylation are conserved in mouse tissues. An in-depth investigation of the human SHANK3 locus and its mouse homologue demonstrated that this tissue-specific DNA methylation regulates intragenic promoter activity in vitro and in vivo. These methylation-regulated, alternative transcripts are expressed in a tissue-and cell type-specific manner, and are expressed differentially within a single cell type from distinct brain regions. These results support a major role for intragenic methylation in regulating cell context-specific alternative promoters in gene bodies. © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved