Reflective Writing in Teacher Education in China: Insights from Systemic Functional Linguistics

This article aims to demonstrate the application of theory to teaching practice by examining how two teacher educators drew upon systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as a pedagogical and analytical tool to inform their teaching of reflective writing to Mandarin-dominant teacher candidates enrolled in an ESOL course within an educator preparation program at a university using English Medium Instruction (EMI) in China. First, the authors describe how they incorporated the SFL appraisal framework into their teaching to bring their multilingual student writers’ attention to the language of evaluation as they prepared to construct reflective language learning autobiographies. Second, the authors demonstrate how SFL-informed text analysis of the appraisal resources used within students’ written reflections deepened their understanding of their students’ reflective writing practices and informed their teaching and course development. The article concludes with suggestions for using the SFL appraisal framework to support the reflective writing of their multilingual teacher candidates

Inhibition of the Mitochondrial Enzyme ABAD Restores the Amyloid-β-Mediated Deregulation of Estradiol

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a conformational disease that is characterized by amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition in the brain. Aβ exerts its toxicity in part by receptor-mediated interactions that cause down-stream protein misfolding and aggregation, as well as mitochondrial dysfunction. Recent reports indicate that Aβ may also interact directly with intracellular proteins such as the mitochondrial enzyme ABAD (Aβ binding alcohol dehydrogenase) in executing its toxic effects. Mitochondrial dysfunction occurs early in AD, and Aβ's toxicity is in part mediated by inhibition of ABAD as shown previously with an ABAD decoy peptide. Here, we employed AG18051, a novel small ABAD-specific compound inhibitor, to investigate the role of ABAD in Aβ toxicity. Using SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, we found that AG18051 partially blocked the Aβ-ABAD interaction in a pull-down assay while it also prevented the Aβ42-induced down-regulation of ABAD activity, as measured by levels of estradiol, a known hormone and product of ABAD activity. Furthermore, AG18051 is protective against Aβ42 toxicity, as measured by LDH release and MTT absorbance. Specifically, AG18051 reduced Aβ42-induced impairment of mitochondrial respiration and oxidative stress as shown by reduced ROS (reactive oxygen species) levels. Guided by our previous finding of shared aspects of the toxicity of Aβ and human amylin (HA), with the latter forming aggregates in Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) pancreas, we determined whether AG18051 would also confer protection from HA toxicity. We found that the inhibitor conferred only partial protection from HA toxicity indicating distinct pathomechanisms of the two amyloidogenic agents. Taken together, our results present the inhibition of ABAD by compounds such as AG18051 as a promising therapeutic strategy for the prevention and treatment of AD, and suggest levels of estradiol as a suitable read-out

Modes of Aβ toxicity in Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is reaching epidemic proportions, yet a cure is not yet available. While the genetic causes of the rare familial inherited forms of AD are understood, the causes of the sporadic forms of the disease are not. Histopathologically, these two forms of AD are indistinguishable: they are characterized by amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide-containing amyloid plaques and tau-containing neurofibrillary tangles. In this review we compare AD to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a subset of which is characterized by tau deposition in the absence of overt plaques. A host of transgenic animal AD models have been established through the expression of human proteins with pathogenic mutations previously identified in familial AD and FTD. Determining how these mutant proteins cause disease in vivo should contribute to an understanding of the causes of the more frequent sporadic forms. We discuss the insight transgenic animal models have provided into Aβ and tau toxicity, also with regards to mitochondrial function and the crucial role tau plays in mediating Aβ toxicity. We also discuss the role of miRNAs in mediating the toxic effects of the Aβ peptide

Reflective Writing in Teacher Education in China: Insights from Systemic Functional Linguistics

This article aims to demonstrate the application of theory to teaching practice by examining how two teacher educators drew upon systemic functional linguistics (SFL) as a pedagogical and analytical tool to inform their teaching of reflective writing to Mandarin-dominant teacher candidates enrolled in an ESOL course within an educator preparation program at a university using English Medium Instruction (EMI) in China. First, the authors describe how they incorporated the SFL appraisal framework into their teaching to bring their multilingual student writers’ attention to the language of evaluation as they prepared to construct reflective language learning autobiographies. Second, the authors demonstrate how SFL-informed text analysis of the appraisal resources used within students’ written reflections deepened their understanding of their students’ reflective writing practices and informed their teaching and course development. The article concludes with suggestions for using the SFL appraisal framework to support the reflective writing of their multilingual teacher candidates

Financial Consequences in Foreign Subsidiary Manager Performance Evaluations

This explorative study contributes to the limited body of knowledge on the financial impacts of using multiple forms of controls in managerial performance evaluations. The study explores (1) how short-term profitability is affected by headquarters' emphasis on financial, nonfinancial and selected behavioral controls in the performance evaluation of overseas subsidiary managers, and (2) whether the effects of such evaluations vary with perceived environmental changes. Documentary and survey data for a sample of multinational companies headquartered in Finland propose that the emphasis of financial controls by top management improves short-term profitability more than an emphasis on nonfinancial or behavioral controls. Simultaneous emphasis of all three types of controls does not significantly increase short-term profitability over an emphasis on financial controls, because the positive effect of behavioral controls is mostly offset by a negative effect of nonfinancial controls. Perceived environmental changes appear to moderate the relationship between the headquarters' emphasis on nonfinancial controls and short-term profitability. These findings imply that in the short-term and regardless of the environmental contingencies analyzed, financial controls are more effective than nonfinancial or behavioral controls in improving profitability, but packages comprising financial and behavioral (action accountability) controls in particular can improve short-term profitability even more.