Unpacking distinction within mobility : social prestige and international students

Author thanks the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for their funding on this projecThis paper investigates the complex ways in which young people engage in social distinction within international mobility. The study offers novel conceptual and empirical insights by examining how distinction and social advantage is reproduced through short‐term student mobility from the Global North to the Global South. In doing so, it elucidates the iterative process of distinction‐making within mobility and argues that young mobile people negotiate a tension between different forms of distinction. Specifically, it unpacks and conceptualises distinction into dual categories—collective and individual—and suggests that students alternate and waver between these categories in order to both validate and elevate their position within a mobility hierarchy. The paper also considers how particular places are viewed as more distinctive and affording greater gains in cultural and symbolic capital. It concludes with future interrogations and ways forward for research on international mobility and distinction.PostprintPeer reviewe

Young children's cognitive achievement: home learning environment, language and ethnic background

For decades, research has shown differences in cognitive assessment scores between White and minority ethnic group(s) learners as well as differences across different minority ethnic groups. More recent data have indicated that the home learning environment and languages spoken can impact cognitive assessment and other corollary outcomes. This study uses the Millennium Cohort Study to jointly assess how minority ethnic group, home learning environment and home languages predict child cognitive assessment scores. Regression analyses were conducted using two assessment measures. The following is hypothesised: (1) cognitive achievement scores vary by minority ethnic group, (2) more home learning environment in early childhood leads to higher cognitive development scores and (3) English only in the home yields the highest cognitive scores while no English in the home yields the lowest. Findings reveal that there are differences in cognitive scores along ethnic group categories although there are also some unexpected findings. Home learning environment does not play as large a role as was predicted in raising the assessment scores overall for learners while speaking English in the home does, irrespective of ethnic background

Large-Scale Sleep Condition Analysis Using Selfies from Social Media

Sleep condition is closely related to an individual's health. Poor sleep conditions such as sleep disorder and sleep deprivation affect one's daily performance, and may also cause many chronic diseases. Many efforts have been devoted to monitoring people's sleep conditions. However, traditional methodologies require sophisticated equipment and consume a significant amount of time. In this paper, we attempt to develop a novel way to predict individual's sleep condition via scrutinizing facial cues as doctors would. Rather than measuring the sleep condition directly, we measure the sleep-deprived fatigue which indirectly reflects the sleep condition. Our method can predict a sleep-deprived fatigue rate based on a selfie provided by a subject. This rate is used to indicate the sleep condition. To gain deeper insights of human sleep conditions, we collected around 100,000 faces from selfies posted on Twitter and Instagram, and identified their age, gender, and race using automatic algorithms. Next, we investigated the sleep condition distributions with respect to age, gender, and race. Our study suggests among the age groups, fatigue percentage of the 0-20 youth and adolescent group is the highest, implying that poor sleep condition is more prevalent in this age group. For gender, the fatigue percentage of females is higher than that of males, implying that more females are suffering from sleep issues than males. Among ethnic groups, the fatigue percentage in Caucasian is the highest followed by Asian and African American.Comment: 2017 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (SBP-BRiMS'17

A human coronavirus responsible for the common cold massively kills dendritic cells but not monocytes

Copyright @ 2012, American Society for Microbiology.Human coronaviruses are associated with upper respiratory tract infections that occasionally spread to the lungs and other organs. Although airway epithelial cells represent an important target for infection, the respiratory epithelium is also composed of an elaborate network of dendritic cells (DCs) that are essential sentinels of the immune system, sensing pathogens and presenting foreign antigens to T lymphocytes. In this report, we show that in vitro infection by human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) induces massive cytopathic effects in DCs, including the formation of large syncytia and cell death within only few hours. In contrast, monocytes are much more resistant to infection and cytopathic effects despite similar expression levels of CD13, the membrane receptor for HCoV-229E. While the differentiation of monocytes into DCs in the presence of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and interleukin-4 requires 5 days, only 24 h are sufficient for these cytokines to sensitize monocytes to cell death and cytopathic effects when infected by HCoV-229E. Cell death induced by HCoV-229E is independent of TRAIL, FasL, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and caspase activity, indicating that viral replication is directly responsible for the observed cytopathic effects. The consequence of DC death at the early stage of HCoV-229E infection may have an impact on the early control of viral dissemination and on the establishment of long-lasting immune memory, since people can be reinfected multiple times by HCoV-229E

Parenting ‘gifted and talented’ children in urban areas: Parents' voices

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright © 2014 by SAGE Publications.International evidence demonstrates the importance of engaging parents in the education of their ‘high-potential’ children, yet limited research has focused on the involvement of parents from differing economic strata/backgrounds. The current study explored the dilemmas of parenting academically high-ability children from economically deprived urban areas in the UK. Data were gathered from a sample of parents whose children attended a university-based sustained intervention programme for designated ‘gifted’ pupils aged 12–16. Parental perceptions were sought in relation to (a) the usefulness/impact of the intervention programme, (b) parents’ aspirations for their children growing up in economically deprived urban areas and (c) parents’ views on the support provided by the extended family, peer groups and the wider community. The findings have significant implications for both policy and practice and, more specifically, for engaging parents in intervention programmes offered by universities and schools to children in order to increase their access to higher education and for enhancing their life chances

Human placental uptake of glutamine and glutamate is reduced in fetal growth restriction

Fetal growth restriction (FGR) is a significant risk factor for stillbirth, neonatal complications and adulthood morbidity. Compared with those of appropriate weight for gestational age (AGA), FGR babies have smaller placentas with reduced activity of amino acid transporter systems A and L, thought to contribute to poor fetal growth. The amino acids glutamine and glutamate are essential for normal placental function and fetal development; whether transport of these is altered in FGR is unknown. We hypothesised that FGR is associated with reduced placental glutamine and glutamate transporter activity and expression, and propose the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway as a candidate mechanism. FGR infants [individualised birth weight ratio (IBR) < 5th centile] had lighter placentas, reduced initial rate uptake of 14C-glutamine and 14C-glutamate (per mg placental protein) but higher expression of key transporter proteins (glutamine: LAT1, LAT2, SNAT5, glutamate: EAAT1) versus AGA [IBR 20th–80th]. In further experiments, in vitro exposure to rapamycin inhibited placental glutamine and glutamate uptake (24 h, uncomplicated pregnancies) indicating a role of mTOR in regulating placental transport of these amino acids. These data support our hypothesis and suggest that abnormal glutamine and glutamate transporter activity is part of the spectrum of placental dysfunction in FGR

Experiments and cycling at the LHC prototype helf-cell

The first version of the LHC prototype half-cell has been in operation since February 1995. It consists of one quadrupole and three 10-m twin aperture dipole magnets which operate at 1.8 K. This experimental set-up has been used to observe and study phenomena which appear when the systems are assembled in one unit and influence one another. The 18-month long experimental program has validated the cryogenic system and yielded a number of results on cryogenic instrumentation, magnet protection and vacuum in particular under non-standard operating conditions. The program was recently complemented by the cycling experiment: it consisted in powering the magnets following the ramp rates which will be experienced by the magnets during an LHC acceleration. In order to simulate 10 years of routine operation of LHC, more than 2000 1-hour cycles were performed interleaved with provoked quenches. The objective of this experiment was to reveal eventual flaws in the design of components. The prototype half-cell performed to expectations showing no sign of failure of fatigue of components for more than 2000 cycles until one of the dipoles started exhibiting an erratic quench behavior

The SNAT4 isoform of the system A amino acid transporter is functional in human placental microvillous plasma membrane

Placental system A activity is important for the supply of neutral amino acids needed for fetal growth. There are three system A isoforms: SNAT1, SNAT2 and SNAT4, but the contribution of each to system A-mediated transport is unknown. Here, we have used immunohistochemistry to demonstrate that all three isoforms are present in the syncytiotrophoblast suggesting each plays a role in amino acid transport across the placenta. We next tested the hypothesis that the SNAT4 isoform is functional in microvillous plasma membrane vesicles (MVM) from normal human placenta using a method which exploits the unique property of SNAT4 to transport both cationic amino acids as well as the system A-specific substrate MeAIB. The data show that SNAT4 contribution to system A-specific amino acid transport across MVM is higher in first trimester placenta compared to term (approx. 70% and 33%, respectively, P < 0.01). Further experiments performed under more physiological conditions using intact placental villous fragments suggest a contribution of SNAT4 to system A activity in first trimester placenta but minimal contribution at term. In agreement, Western blotting revealed that SNAT4 protein expression is higher in first trimester MVM compared to term (P < 0.05). This study provides the first evidence of SNAT4 activity in human placenta and demonstrates the contribution of SNAT4 to system A-mediated transport decreases between first trimester and term: our data lead us to speculate that at later stages of gestation SNAT1 and/or SNAT2 are more important for the supply of amino acids required for normal fetal growth

Acceleration of High Intensity Proton Beams

In 1998 the CERN SPS accelerator finished a five years long program providing 450GeV proton beams for neutrino physics. These experiments required the highest possible beam intensity the SPS can deliver. During the last five years the maximum proton intensity in the SPS has steadily been increased to a maximum of 4.8 1013 protons per cycle. In order to achieve these intensities a careful monitoring and improvement of the vertical aperture was necessary. Improved feedback systems on the different RF cavities were needed in order to avoid instabilities. Also the quality (emittance and extraction spill) of the injector, the CERN PS, had be optimised

A healthy start : promoting mental health and well-being in the early primary school years

This study was in part funded by the University of Malta.Mental health problems in children represent a significant international health concern, with up to one in five children using mental health services during the course of any given year. Identifying the processes of what prevents social, emotional and behaviour difficulties (SEBD) and promotes healthy development from an early age can make a significant contribution to the promotion of positive mental health in children. This article describes a longitudinal study which sought to identify the risk and promotive factors as young children move from the early to junior years in primary school. Multilevel analysis was used to identify the individual, classroom, school, home and community factors that predict change in SEBD and in prosocial behaviour in the early school years. It also calculated the cumulative effect of the various risk and promotive factors on the pupils’ well-being and mental health. The article presents the windows of vulnerability and opportunity for young children’s healthy development, proposing a trajectory for healthy development in early and middle childhood.peer-reviewe