Why a contextual approach to professional development?

One of the peculiarities of the literature on academic professional development with regard to teaching is its a-political nature. It pays insufficient attention to issues of equity, and to how privilege, geographical location, class and ethnicity influence the way that staff in higher education learn to teach. This is surprising, or paradoxical, given the strong world-wide concern for widening participation and student success in higher education. The approaches towards professional academic development have been dominated by literature from the global North, which does not take into account conditions in resource-constrained environments. We contend that literature from these Southern environments enrich the international body of literature. Thus there is a need for scholarly writing on learning to teach in higher education, which takes a specifically social, contextual and relational approach and which considers these within resource-rich as well as resource-constrained environments

Effect of dietary soluble fiber on neurohormonal profiles in serum and brain of rats

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary soluble fiber administration and /or high fat diet on serum and brain neurohormonal profiles, adipose tissue mass and body weight gain in Sprague-Dawley rats. Four groups of rats were respectively fed 10% fat diet (C), 10% fat plus pectin diet (P), 20% fat diet (HFC) and 20% fat plus pectin diet (HFP) for 4 weeks. In HFP group, the food and energy intake, body weight gain, FER including fecal excretion were the smallest (p<0.05). Serum HDL-cholesterol, triglyceride and glucose level were also the lowest in HFP group (p<0.05). The weight of brain, epididymal fat pad and adrenal gland except liver didn't show any significant differences among groups. Interestingly serum norepinephrine concentration of HFP group tended to be higher, but dopamine concentration tended to be lower than those of HFC group. However serum catecholamine concentration didn't show any significant differences among all groups. Norepinephrine and epinephrine contents of right portion of midbrain of P and HFP groups were remarkably lower than those of the C group. These results suggested that soluble fiber pectin consumption might affect neurohormonal profiles in serum and brain according to dietary fat level

An investigation into the influences of institutional context on the professional learning of academics in their roles as teachers

publisher versionPreface by Prof Narend Baijnath: “Teaching and learning are never neutral. Every aspect is ideological in nature: from the admission of students, to the selection of curriculum content, to the adoption of learning materials, to the pedagogical approach, to the mode of assessment and the quality of the feedback. The form of disciplinary knowledge may vary from the more subjective and contentious to the more objective and broadly accepted, but teaching and learning remain highly political acts across all institutions, faculties and disciplines. So it is unsurprising that when a country undergoes major social change, ideological demands are placed on teaching and learning.” (HE Reviewed, CHE 2016 p.143). There are many and diverse influences on teaching and learning as a political act, from broad social movements that challenge what is taught, to the ways in which resources have historically been allocated, to the values and goals of different disciplines, and the more immediate institutional and faculty contexts in which they take place. Learning to teach in higher education in South Africa is a timely and well-researched contribution to understanding the influences of that more immediate layer, that is, of institutional contexts, on the professional learning of academics in their roles as teachers. It explores questions of whether it matters to the professional learning process whether one is teaching in a context in which resources are scarce, or whether the departmental leadership style is authoritarian, or whether an institution has a strong drive to increase research output. And if it matters, what are the implications for facilitating opportunities for academics to ‘learn to teach’ in higher education? Undertaken by a team of academic staff developers across eight institutional contexts, this research report offers a comprehensive, nuanced and theorised set of insights into the role that context plays in the ways in which academics learn to teach. Such insights can inform the development of professional learning initiatives at both the institutional and national policy levels. The report is one of the outcomes of a large-scale study carried out between 2011 and 2016, made possible by funding from the National Research Foundation. It has spawned many research articles, books and PhD studies (see Appendix One) and has thus in itself provided a vehicle for the development of further research and researchers on the subject. The team chose to work collaboratively, with all the possibilities and difficulties that that entails, as reflected on in Chapter 7. Thereby, it also offers an illuminating reflection and insights into such research methodology. While the report does not specifically set out to offer anything new or surprising about the cultural and contextual differences between institutions, it does offer a coherent interpretation of such complex and intersecting conditions examined through a single theoretical lens. Indeed, the concepts of ‘structure, culture and agency’ as developed in the work of the social realist, Margaret Archer, formed the theoretical canvas for the study. The theory allows for the analytical separation of different domains for the purposes of understanding the interplay of relations, but it also offers a hope of bringing about social transformation through exercising particular modes of reflexivity. As the report argues, quoting Archer, transforming our positions in society is possible, but “their transformation depends partly on the subjective reflexivity of primary agents in seeking to play an active part in reshaping society’s resource distribution”. The researchers may not always have found it easy to apply a single theoretical lens, but the theory based study provides a coherent representation of the differences and similarities between the institutional contexts of the eight universities, throwing into relief their different influences on professional learning, and points to pathways towards the improvement of teaching and learning in South African higher education. A major contribution of this report that is likely to influence the discourse on teaching and learning significantly, is the conceptual shift from ‘professional development’ to ‘professional learning’. As an external reviewer noted, “in the context of the decolonization debate, [this shift] has the potential to offer a more flexible continuum in which to position different learning opportunities”. It also recognises the importance of group and individual agency and the importance of informal contexts in learning to teach. 12 | Monitor 14 | Learning to Teach in Higher Education in South Africa The publication of this research report takes forward the CHE’s ongoing endeavours to improve and enhance the quality of teaching and learning in higher education. It serves to complement the more practical implementation of quality assurance in higher education, which for the CHE has largely entailed a focus on teaching and learning, whether in accreditation, audits or the Quality Enhancement Project (QEP) that began in 2014 in which one of the four focus areas that universities were asked to engage with was “enhancing academics as teachers”. Participation in the QEP over the past three years has contributed to a heightened awareness across the sector of the importance of academics developing competence in university teaching, particularly given the increased emphasis being placed on student success by both the government and higher education institutions themselves. As a result, universities are becoming more intentional in their efforts to help academics develop this competence. The release of the study is therefore timely, as not only will it add to our collective understanding of the complexities and nuances in the interrelationships between structure, culture and agency that inform and influence academics in their roles as teachers, but it will serve as a useful resource for institutions in their efforts to enhance university teachers and teaching. The Higher Education Monitor series, as was elaborated in the first issue in 2003, “aims to stimulate research and the production of knowledge and interpretive frameworks that could contribute to better theorisation of higher education, more rigorous analysis of higher education complexities and more effective strategies for change and progress”. It is our hope that this report will do exactly that.We thank the National Research Foundation for funding the project that made the study and the ensuing report possible, Professor Brenda Leibowitz for leading the team of researchers, our external reviewers, and the individual authors who took the time to present drafts of their chapters to Dr Webbstock of the CHE at a workshop in May 2016

Collaborative research in contexts of inequality: the role of social reflexivity

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by fourteen members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, i.e. structural and cultural, and agential conditions, influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by fourteen of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants' home institutions are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.DHE

Environmental factors in early childhood are associated with multiple sclerosis: a case-control study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) with increasing incidence mainly in high-income countries. One explanation of this phenomenon may be a higher prevalence of allergic and autoimmune diseases in industrialized countries as a consequence of otherwise beneficial advances in sanitation (hygiene hypothesis). We investigated environmental factors in early childhood associated with MS.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A case-control study was performed of 245 MS patients and 296 population-based controls in Berlin. The study participants completed a standardized questionnaire on environmental factors in childhood and youth, including aspects of personal and community hygiene. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate factors in childhood and youth associated with the occurrence of MS.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mean age was 46 years (range, 20-80) in the MS group and 42 years (range 18-80) in the control group, of which 73.9% in the MS and 61.5% in the control group were female. The multivariable analysis showed that having at least two older siblings (OR 0.54; p = 0.05, for individuals with two older siblings compared to individuals without older siblings), attending a day-care center (OR 0.5; p = 0.004) and growing up in an urban center with more than 100, 000 inhabitants (OR 0.43; p = 0.009) were factors independently associated with a lower chance for MS.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The hygiene hypothesis may play a role in the occurrence of MS and could explain disease distribution and increasing incidence.</p

Chromothripsis in acute myeloid leukemia: Biological features and impact on survival

Chromothripsis is a one-step genome-shattering catastrophe resulting from disruption of one or few chromosomes in multiple fragments and consequent random rejoining and repair. This study defines incidence of chromothripsis in 395 newly diagnosed adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients from three institutions, its impact on survival and its genomic background. SNP 6.0 or CytoscanHD Array (Affymetrix\uae) were performed on all samples. We detected chromothripsis with a custom algorithm in 26/395 patients. Patients harboring chromothripsis had higher age (p = 0.002), ELN high risk (HR) (p &lt; 0.001), lower white blood cell (WBC) count (p = 0.040), TP53 loss, and/or mutations (p &lt; 0.001) while FLT3 (p = 0.025), and NPM1 (p = 0.032) mutations were mutually exclusive with chromothripsis. Chromothripsis-positive patients showed a worse overall survival (OS) (p &lt; 0.001) compared with HR patients (p = 0.011) and a poor prognosis in a COX-HR optimal regression model. Chromothripsis presented the hallmarks of chromosome instability [i.e., TP53 alteration, 5q deletion, higher mean of copy number alteration (CNA), complex karyotype, alterations in DNA repair, and cell cycle] and focal deletions on chromosomes 4, 7, 12, 16, and 17. CBA. FISH showed that chromothripsis is associated with marker, derivative, and ring chromosomes. In conclusion, chromothripsis frequently occurs in AML (6.6%) and influences patient prognosis and disease biology

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

Para-infectious brain injury in COVID-19 persists at follow-up despite attenuated cytokine and autoantibody responses

To understand neurological complications of COVID-19 better both acutely and for recovery, we measured markers of brain injury, inflammatory mediators, and autoantibodies in 203 hospitalised participants; 111 with acute sera (1–11 days post-admission) and 92 convalescent sera (56 with COVID-19-associated neurological diagnoses). Here we show that compared to 60 uninfected controls, tTau, GFAP, NfL, and UCH-L1 are increased with COVID-19 infection at acute timepoints and NfL and GFAP are significantly higher in participants with neurological complications. Inflammatory mediators (IL-6, IL-12p40, HGF, M-CSF, CCL2, and IL-1RA) are associated with both altered consciousness and markers of brain injury. Autoantibodies are more common in COVID-19 than controls and some (including against MYL7, UCH-L1, and GRIN3B) are more frequent with altered consciousness. Additionally, convalescent participants with neurological complications show elevated GFAP and NfL, unrelated to attenuated systemic inflammatory mediators and to autoantibody responses. Overall, neurological complications of COVID-19 are associated with evidence of neuroglial injury in both acute and late disease and these correlate with dysregulated innate and adaptive immune responses acutely