Music Generated Narratives: Elaborating the Da Capo Interview Technique

This paper shows how we played researcher-selected extracts of music to participants in “the Da Capo technique,” to elicit narratives of their learning experiences. Previously, we used music alongside other techniques in an interview about learning; here we explore the Da Capo technique as a standalone technique to study its potential for narrative recall. To do this, we played 10 one-minute long extracts of classical music (five “Western” and five “Chinese”) to 20 participants (10 “Western” and 10 “Chinese”). After hearing each piece, participants were asked if the music recalled for them any experiences of learning. When it did so, we explored this further in dialogue and narrative recall. As expected, some narratives related to experiences of studying, academic success, and of particular times and places associated with learning. However, in many cases the music elicited narratives of learning which, surprisingly and in multiple dimensions, related to physical learning, culture, the family, and particular emotions such as sympathy, and of aspects of character, such as optimism and honesty. We provide details of using the technique, where particular music elicited learning experiences and where they did not. We provide further evidence of the value of using music either as a stand-alone method in the qualitative researcher’s toolkit, or as an additional and complementary tool. We discuss the merits, limitations, and potential applications of the Da Capo technique

Good teachers: visions of values and virtues in university student metaphors

Good teachers in university education embody combinations of continuity and change. In the first part here, university teaching is considered in Western philosophies and educational discourse to suggest teacher characteristics and meta-functions, but this article proposes wider internationalised dialogues within humanities which crucially take student views into account. In the second part, we analyse a database of 863 metaphors about teachers given by 439 university students in Malaysia, adopting a socio-cultural approach based on cognitive linguistics. This elicited metaphor analysis explores student views of “good” teachers expressed in such metaphors as “a good teacher is a burning candle” or “a piece of chalk”. Our analysis of metaphor entailments reveals meta-functions and virtues of good teachers which though absent in some official discourses, cohere with the educational philosophy of part one: they include cognitive, social/cultural, affective, moral/spiritual and aesthetic meta-functions. These emphasise the purposes of what teachers “do” and the character of what teachers “are”, as models for what students “do” and what they “become”. This gives challenging insights for teachers (and students) to self-cultivate virtues if these participant visions are taken seriously for learner-centred approaches to humanities in new balances of continuity and change

A Signal Sequence Is Sufficient for Green Fluorescent Protein to Be Routed to Regulated Secretory Granules

To investigate trafficking in neuroendocrine cells, green fluorescent protein (GFP) tags were fused to various portions of the preproneuropeptide Y (NPY) precursor. Two neuroendocrine cell lines, AtT-20 corticotrope tumor cells and PC-12 pheochromocytoma cells, along with primary anterior pituitary cells, were examined. Expression of chimeric constructs did not disrupt trafficking or regulated secretion of endogenous ACTH and prohormone convertase 1 in AtT-20 cells. Western blot and immunocytochemical analyses demonstrated that the chimeric constructs remained intact, as long as the Lys-Arg cleavage site within preproNPY was deleted. GFP was stored in, and released from, regulated granules in cells expressing half of the NPY precursor fused to GFP, and also in cells in which only the signal sequence of preproNPY was fused to GFP. Thus, in neuroendocrine cells, entering the lumen of the secretory pathway is sufficient to target GFP to regulated secretory granules

Cytokine-Induced Killer Cells As Pharmacological Tools for Cancer Immunotherapy

Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells are a heterogeneous population of effector CD3+CD56+ natural killer T cells, which can be easily expanded in vitro from peripheral blood mononuclear cells. CIK cells work as pharmacological tools for cancer immunotherapy as they exhibit MHC-unrestricted, safe, and effective antitumor activity. Much effort has been made to improve CIK cells cytotoxicity and treatments of CIK cells combined with other antitumor therapies are applied. This review summarizes some strategies, including the combination of CIK with additional cytokines, dendritic cells, check point inhibitors, antibodies, chemotherapeutic agents, nanomedicines, and engineering CIK cells with a chimeric antigen receptor. Furthermore, we briefly sum up the clinical trials on CIK cells and compare the effect of clinical CIK therapy with other immunotherapies. Finally, further research is needed to clarify the pharmacological mechanism of CIK and provide evidence to formulate uniform culturing criteria for CIK expansion

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Academic cultural expectations and second language use : Chinese postgraduate students in the U.K. - a cultural synergy model.

With a rising percentage of overseas students in British universities, it is important to ascertain the nature of any cultural gap in academic expectations between students and tutors. This research investigates the academic cultural orientations of the case of Chinese students and British supervisors through the analysis of 211 samples of questionnaire and interview data. The focus is on examining the influence of the socio-psychological and academic cultural background of Chinese students - as advanced second language learners/users - on their use of English for academic studies in UK universities. This background includes the major features of Confucianism, Taoism and modem Chinese intellectual development. In the context of a review of second language acquisition models, a Cultural Synergy Model for second language acquisition and academic language use is proposed which extends considerably Schumann's Acculturation Model. The findings suggest that the bigger the gap between orientations and expectations of British and Chinese academic cultures, the more difficulties Chinese students have in the use of academic English. This gap is examined in detail under the headings of social, psychological and academic distances. This model is built up inductively from the data and is considered a heuristic model to guide further research on other cultural groups of students. Practical implications and suggestions are discussed in the conclusion