Inclusion Not Exclusion: Comparative Educational Perspectives at the Heart of Sustainable Development in the Gulf States

Welcome to this special edition of FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education. This issue celebrates the rich variety of research brought together at the 6th Annual Gulf Comparative Education Society (GCES) Symposium in April 2015. Hosted by Middlesex University at their Dubai campus, the symposium was an opportunity to share and critically discuss matters related to comparative and educational research in a region where opportunities for such activities can be challenging to access. Speakers from Kuwait to Oman came together, and in the form of the conference found both a voice and a support network. The richness of this meeting of minds has been captured in part though this special edition. Building on the quality of research that FIRE has become recognized for, we hope you will find the content of this issue interesting, thought provoking, and even controversial, as all good research should be. Above all, we hope it inspires even more academics from within this region to come forward and participate in the debate at future GCES conferences

Genome-wide search reveals a novel GacA-regulated small RNA in Pseudomonas species

BACKGROUND: Small RNAs (sRNAs) are widespread among bacteria and have diverse regulatory roles. Most of these sRNAs have been discovered by a combination of computational and experimental methods. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a ubiquitous Gram-negative bacterium and opportunistic human pathogen, the GacS/GacA two-component system positively controls the transcription of two sRNAs (RsmY, RsmZ), which are crucial for the expression of genes involved in virulence. In the biocontrol bacterium Pseudomonas fluorescens CHA0, three GacA-controlled sRNAs (RsmX, RsmY, RsmZ) regulate the response to oxidative stress and the expression of extracellular products including biocontrol factors. RsmX, RsmY and RsmZ contain multiple unpaired GGA motifs and control the expression of target mRNAs at the translational level, by sequestration of translational repressor proteins of the RsmA family. RESULTS: A combined computational and experimental approach enabled us to identify 14 intergenic regions encoding sRNAs in P. aeruginosa. Eight of these regions encode newly identified sRNAs. The intergenic region 1698 was found to specify a novel GacA-controlled sRNA termed RgsA. GacA regulation appeared to be indirect. In P. fluorescens CHA0, an RgsA homolog was also expressed under positive GacA control. This 120-nt sRNA contained a single GGA motif and, unlike RsmX, RsmY and RsmZ, was unable to derepress translation of the hcnA gene (involved in the biosynthesis of the biocontrol factor hydrogen cyanide), but contributed to the bacterium's resistance to hydrogen peroxide. In both P. aeruginosa and P. fluorescens the stress sigma factor RpoS was essential for RgsA expression. CONCLUSION: The discovery of an additional sRNA expressed under GacA control in two Pseudomonas species highlights the complexity of this global regulatory system and suggests that the mode of action of GacA control may be more elaborate than previously suspected. Our results also confirm that several GGA motifs are required in an sRNA for sequestration of the RsmA protein

Another Kind of Education: The Gruner School

Believing in the limitless potential of the next generation, The Gruner School prepares students to be academically, socially, and mentally strong and excel in life beyond high school through a rigorous program rooted in the intersection of academia and the workforce. Project Description: The project was the result of the Spring 2020 course, IDST 290: Education in Fiction and Fact Seminar, a continuation of the fall SSIR (Sophomore Scholars in Residence) course, Education in Fiction and Fact. The project was to design an ideal school.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/ssir-presentations-2020/1000/thumbnail.jp

Multiple <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> erythrocyte membrane protein 1 variants per genome can bind IgM via its Fc fragment Fcμ

The Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1) adhesive proteins expressed on the surfaces of infected erythrocytes (IEs) are of key importance in the pathogenesis of P. falciparum malaria. Several structurally and functionally defined PfEMP1 types have been associated with severe clinical manifestations, such as cerebral malaria in children and placental malaria in pregnant women. PfEMP1 that can bind the Fc part of IgM (Fcμ) characterizes one such type, although the functional significance of this IgM binding to PfEMP1 remains unclear. In this study, we report the identification and functional analysis of five IgM-binding PfEMP1 proteins encoded by P. falciparum NF54. In addition to the VAR2CSA-type PFL0030c protein, already known to bind Fcμ and to mediate chondroitin sulfate A (CSA)-specific adhesion of IEs in the placenta, we found four PfEMP1 proteins not previously known to bind IgM this way. Although they all contained Duffy binding-like ε (DBLε) domains similar to those in VAR2CSA-type PfEMP1, they did not mediate IE adhesion to CSA, and IgM binding did not shield IEs from phagocytosis of IgG-opsonized IEs. In this way, these new IgM-binding PfEMP1 proteins resemble the rosette-mediating and IgM-binding PfEMP1 HB3VAR06, but none of them mediated formation of rosettes. We could map the capacity for Fc-specific IgM binding to DBLε domains near the C terminus for three of the four PfEMP1 proteins tested. Our study provides new evidence regarding Fc-dependent binding of IgM to PfEMP1, which appears to be a common and multifunctional phenotype

Neural correlates of colour categories

This study used an electrophysiological marker of visual detection to investigate adults' processing of colour difference. Event-related potentials were collected from the identical colour (green: G0) presented as the frequent or infrequent stimulus within different colour contexts. Critically, we compared differences within the same colour category (G0 vs. green: G1) to differences between colour categories (G0 vs. blue and G0 vs. red). All differences showed a change-related positivity with similar scalp distribution. It was, however, not simply the magnitude of colour difference that reduced the latencies of the change-related positivity. A change in colour category without a magnitude difference also reduced latency of the event-related potential. Thus, for the first time we report an independent neural correlate of a colour category

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