Citizenship education north and south: learning and progression (CENSLP) - final project report

Understanding our subjects and the nature of subject knowledge and progression in learning are essential aspects of initial teacher education (ITE) but, in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, as in most areas, models of Citizenship Education (CE) are heavily dependent on the official definitions of citizenship developed by curriculum officials, with varying levels of political control and teacher consultation. Whilst there are networks of teachers bringing together CE teachers (for example the Five Nations network funded by the Gordon Cook Foundation) there has been little work developed by teachers to identify a comprehensive model of what it is that CE teachers actually do in the classroom and what young people do (and should) learn in the subject. We believe this makes CE particularly vulnerable to political influence and that it can become a repository for wider social policy concerns. Whilst there is always a need to identify a form of CE that suits the context in which it is being taught, this must be balanced by a more informed sense of what the core of the subject entails and how young people actually learn citizenship. In other comparable subjects there have been teacher-led initiatives in the past such as the Humanities Curriculum Project (Stenhouse, 1983), and project CHATA (Lee & Ashby, 1987), which identify key concepts, skills, questions and areas of factual knowledge that together comprise the ‘subject lens’ that young people can apply to think about the world from a particular perspective. This project begins to develop such a model for CE, focusing on what is distinctive about seeing the world as a citizen, and thus developing a clear model for how teachers structure their teaching and how young people learn in CE. This will facilitate a discussion about attainment and progression within the subject as a school subject, and help to further distinguish CE from citizenship, as a political construct. This small project, supported by SCOTENS, set out to generate a working model to underpin a larger scale research project, and as such it has allowed us to pilot a methodology and yield some initial working models for conceptual and skills progression. Whilst we do not claim to have discovered a universal model of progression in conceptual learning, we hope to have illustrated the value of thinking seriously about subject knowledge in CE and the complexities involved in asking students to use abstract concepts to think about citizenship

Revisiting subject knowledge in citizenship education: understanding power and agency

Citizenship educators have not yet developed a satisfactory framework for describing the conceptual knowledge at the heart of their subject and the complex ways in which students develop understanding. By focusing on how young people (10-18 years of age) use the core citizenship concepts of power and agency, this research provides an insight into how students learn. Our analysis of young people’s work reveals that many of them are operating with a pre-political or politically naïve understanding of the world which limits their ability to understand power and agency. Some students have gone on to develop a greater sense of their own agency within complex chains of influence, which demonstrates a more nuanced understanding of power and agency, rooted in a more political reading of world. We conclude that our findings may help citizenship teachers to plan more consciously to tackle this area of conceptual understanding

Open-resorcinarenes, a new family of multivalent scaffolds

A new family of multivalent ligand platforms, the open-resorcinarenes, has been prepared in a straightforward two-step reaction. Modification of the core gives a range of topologically diverse scaffolds; functionalisation confirms the versatility of this approach, as shown through the formation of an octacalixarene array

Sleep regularity and predictors of sleep efficiency and sleep duration in elite team sport athletes

Background Many elite athletes have suboptimal sleep duration and efficiency, potentially due to factors that may impact sleep onset and offset times. Variability in sleep onset and offset may negatively influence sleep. The sleep regularity index (SRI) is a novel metric for sleep regularity, however there are no published descriptions of SRI in elite athletes. Further, contributors to sleep efficiency and duration in elite athletes using objective measures have not been explored. Methods Sleep was monitored over a minimum of seven consecutive days (7 to 43)—in 203 elite team sport athletes (age range = 19–36 years; female, n = 79; male, n = 124, total sleep nights = 1975) using activity monitoring and sleep diaries. The sleep regularity index (SRI) was calculated to reflect the night-to-night shifts in sleep by accounting for changes in sleep onset and sleep offset. Sleep characteristics were compared between regular and irregular sleepers and important contributors to sleep efficiency and total sleep time were assessed using multiple linear regression models. Results The median sleep regularity index and interquartile range were 85.1 (81.4 to 88.8). When compared to irregular sleepers, regular sleepers demonstrated (1) significantly greater sleep efficiency (p = 0.006; 0.31 medium effect size [ES]), (2) significantly less variability in total sleep time (− p ≤ 0.001; − 0.69, large ES) and sleep efficiency (− 0.34, small ES), (3) similar total sleep time and (4) significantly less variation in sleep onset (p ≤ 0.001; − 0.73, large ES) and offset (p ≤ 0.001; − 0.74, large ES) times. Sleep characteristics explained 73% and 22% of the variance in total sleep time and sleep efficiency, respectively. The most important contributor to total sleep time was a later sleep offset time, while the most important contributors to sleep efficiency were an earlier bedtime and less variable sleep onset times. Conclusions Bedtime and a consistent sleep onset time are important factors associated with sleep efficiency in athletes, while sleep offset is an important factor for total sleep time. Coaches and staff can assist their athletes by providing training schedules that allow for both regularity and sufficiency of time in bed where possible

Inhibition of vascular adhesion protein-1 modifies hepatic steatosis in vitro and in vivo

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with obesity, insulin resistance and dyslipidaemia and currently is estimated to affect up to a third of all individuals in developed countries. Current standard of care for patients varies according to disease stage, but includes lifestyle interventions common insulin sensitizers, antioxidants and lipid modifiers. However, to date specific therapies have shown little histological or fibrosis stage improvement in large clinical trials, and there is still no licensed therapy for NAFLD. Given the high prevalence, limited treatment options and significant screening costs for the general population, new treatments are urgently required. AIM: To assess the potential for inhibition of the amine oxidase enzyme vascular adhesion protein-1 (VAP-1) to modify hepatic lipid accumulation in NAFLD. METHODS: We have used immunochemical and qPCR analysis to document expression of VAP-1 and key functional proteins and transporters across the NAFLD spectrum. We then utilised hepatocytes in culture and human precision cut liver slices in concert with selective enzyme activity inhibitors to test the effects of activating the semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase activity of VAP-1 on hepatic lipid uptake and triglyceride export. A murine model of NAFLD was also used to determine the consequences of VAP-1 knockout and gene expression arrays were used to quantify the effects of VAP-1 activity on key lipid modifying and proinflammatory gene expression. RESULTS: We confirmed that increasing severity of NAFLD and progression to cirrhosis was associated with a significant increase in hepatocellular VAP-1 expression. Hepatocytes in vitro exposed to recombinant VAP-1 and its substrate methylamine showed increased lipid accumulation as determined by quantification of Oil Red O uptake. This was recapitulated using hydrogen peroxide, and lipid accumulation was accompanied by changes in expression of the lipid transporter molecules FABP3, FATP6, insulin receptor subunits and PPARα. Human liver tissue exposed to recombinant VAP-1 or substrates for endo/exogenous VAP-1 produced less triglyceride than untreated tissue and demonstrated an increase in steatosis. This response could be inhibited by using bromoethylamine to inhibit the SSAO activity of VAP-1, and mice deficient in VAP-1/AOC3 also demonstrated reduced steatosis on high fat diet. Exposure of human liver tissue to methylamine to activate VAP-1 resulted in increased expression of FABP2 and 4, FATP3-5, caveolin-1, VLDLR, PPARGC1 and genes associated with the inflammatory response. CONCLUSION: Our data confirm that the elevations in hepatic VAP-1 expression reported in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis can contribute to steatosis, metabolic disturbance and inflammation. This suggests that targeting the semicarbazide sensitive amine oxidase capacity of VAP-1 may represent a useful adjunct to other therapeutic strategies in NAFLD

Screening of Exosomal MicroRNAs From Colorectal Cancer Cells

BACKGROUND: Cells release extracellular membrane vesicles including microvesicles known as exosomes. Exosomes contain microRNAs (miRNAs) however the full range within colorectal cancer cell secreted exosomes is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To identify the full range of exosome encapsulated miRNAs secreted from 2 colorectal cancer cell lines and to investigate engineering of exosomes over-expressing miRNAs. METHODS: Exosomes were isolated from HCT-116 and HT-29 cell lines. RNA was extracted from exosomes and microRNA array performed. Cells were engineered to express miR-379 (HCT-116-379) or a non-targeting control (HCT-116-NTC) and functional effects were determined. Exosomes secreted by engineered cells were transferred to recipient cells and the impact examined. RESULTS: Microvesicles 40-100 nm in size secreted by cell lines were visualised and confirmed to express exosomal protein CD63. HT-29 exosomes contained 409 miRNAs, HCT-116 exosomes contained 393, and 338 were common to exosomes from both cell lines. Selected targets were validated. HCT-116-379 cells showed decreased proliferation (12-15% decrease, p \u3c 0.001) and decreased migration (32-86% decrease, p \u3c 0.001) compared to controls. HCT-116-379 exosomes were enriched for miR-379. Confocal microscopy visualised transfer of HCT-116-379 exosomes to recipient cells. CONCLUSIONS: Colorectal cancer cells secrete a large number of miRNAs within exosomes. miR-379 decreases cell proliferation and migration, and miR-379 enriched exosomes can be engineered

2015 Ruby Yearbook

A digitized copy of the 2015 Ruby, the Ursinus College yearbook.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/ruby/1118/thumbnail.jp