Re-Worlding the Virtual: Exploring Art and Archipelagic Education through Virtual Environments

This paper expands on the use of virtual environments to address educational questions around social isolation, embodiment and knowledge production. Supported by curricular experimentations with archipelagic thinking, it reflects on the potential for virtual environments to provide novel educational contexts for students to explore the relationship between art and environment at a time of climate transition. Archipelagic thinking is a theoretical framework that emerged out of Island studies and postcolonial discourse in the late 20th century. Emphasising relational flow between islanders, islands, entities and worlds, archipelagic thinking seeks to address the epistemological distinctions between centre and periphery, between the northern and southern hemispheres, what Boaventura De Sousa Santos has called ‘the abyssal line’(De Sousa Santos, 2018). Within this context, post-abyssal pedagogies are pedagogies that challenge the epistemic injustices between official and unofficial knowledge, mapped out through geographic location. These theoretical frameworks became the methodological ground upon which a virtual pedagogical experiment was developed in the MA Art and Environment, in west cork. Aiming to create a more embodied educational experience within virtual reality, archipelagic spaces were constructed to support exchanges with local voices and local knowledge. Re-worlding the virtual through these processes, the Virtual Archipelago was further expanded into a European-wide conference on the ethics and politics of virtual reality education in arts institutions. Reflecting on the values and principles that have emerged through these discussions this paper points towards some possible research directions

Once Were Science Teachers

This paper explores the development of three pre-service science teacher educators\u27 understandings of some critical incidents in their development of science teachers that has impacted on the manner in which they teach about teaching in a teacher preparation program. The study draws on self-study methodology by situating their reflection on practice within a critical discourse whereby reframing has been important in learning through a reconsideration from particular critical incidents in their high school science teaching experiences. The authors argue that through critical reflection on practice, as illustrated in this paper, that the beginnings of the articulation and documentation of a knowledge base of teaching about teaching might be initiated. They therefore offer some of their emerging views on what that knowledge base might encompass through some assertions of practice that they believe impact on their teaching about teaching

40 years of science education research: The state of play and its application to teaching and learning in tertiary science

Since the early days of recognizing that students should play a central role in their own learning in the 1970s a wealth of research has pointed to the importance of student-centred learning approaches in science education and to the increasing complexity of the teacher’s role. Our understanding of the place of the teacher in teaching and learning has developed considerably over the last 30 years, particularly through the development of a theory of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, which describes the complex intersection of teacher content knowledge and knowledge of effective ways of teaching this content. The structure of the knowledge we teach has also been explored through research into the nature of scientific concepts and how students engage with these. This work also began some 30 years ago through research into nature of science misconceptions that students bring to the classroom and how these impinge on their capacity to learn new concepts. In all of these areas Australian researchers have played an integral part. Professor Loughran’s research has focussed on answering the question, “How do teachers learn how to teach and how do they then put that into practice and develop their knowledge, skills and ability over time?” This is now a question of increasing interest to tertiary teachers of science

Moderate Nrf2 Activation by Genetic Disruption of Keap1 Has Sex-Specific Effects on Bone Mass in Mice

Keap1 is a negative controller of the transcription factor Nrf2 for its activity. The Keap1/Nrf2 signaling pathway has been considered as a master regulator of cytoprotective genes, and exists in many cell types including osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Our previous study shows Nrf2 deletion decreases bone formation. Recent studies show hyperactivation of Nrf2 causes osteopenia in Keap1−/− mice, and Keap1−/− osteoblasts have significantly less proliferative potential than Keap1+/− osteoblasts. We aimed to examine if moderate Nrf2 activation by disruption of Keap1 impacts bone metabolism. We examined bone phenotype of Keap1 heterozygotic mice (Ht) in comparison with Keap1 wild type (WT) mice. Deletion or knockdown of Keap1 enhanced the gene expression of Nrf2, ALP and wnt5a in cultured primary osteoblasts compared to WT control. In male mice, compared with their age-matched littermate WT controls, Keap1 Ht mice showed significant increase in bone formation rate (+30.7%, P = 0.0029), but did not change the ultimate force (P < 0.01). The osteoclast cell numbers (−32.45%, P = 0.01) and surface (−32.58%, P = 0.03) were significantly reduced by Keap1 deficiency in male mice. Compared to male WT mice, serum bone resorption marker in male Keap1 Ht mice was significantly decreased. Our data suggest that moderate Nrf2 activation by disruption of Keap1 improved bone mass by regulating bone remodeling in male mice

Translational autoregulation of BZW1 and BZW2 expression by modulating the stringency of start codon selection.

The efficiency of start codon selection during ribosomal scanning in eukaryotic translation initiation is influenced by the context or flanking nucleotides surrounding the AUG codon. The levels of eukaryotic translation initiation factors 1 (eIF1) and 5 (eIF5) play critical roles in controlling the stringency of translation start site selection. The basic leucine zipper and W2 domain-containing proteins 1 and 2 (BZW1 and BZW2), also known as eIF5-mimic proteins, are paralogous human proteins containing C-terminal HEAT domains that resemble the HEAT domain of eIF5. We show that translation of mRNAs encoding BZW1 and BZW2 homologs in fungi, plants and metazoans is initiated by AUG codons in conserved unfavorable initiation contexts. This conservation is reminiscent of the conserved unfavorable initiation context that enables autoregulation of EIF1. We show that overexpression of BZW1 and BZW2 proteins enhances the stringency of start site selection, and that their poor initiation codons confer autoregulation on BZW1 and BZW2 mRNA translation. We also show that overexpression of these two proteins significantly diminishes the effect of overexpressing eIF5 on stringency of start codon selection, suggesting they antagonize this function of eIF5. These results reveal a surprising role for BZW1 and BZW2 in maintaining homeostatic stringency of start codon selection, and taking into account recent biochemical, genetic and structural insights into eukaryotic initiation, suggest a model for BZW1 and BZW2 function

Investment Bank Expertise in Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions

We study the influence of country expertise of investment banks in facilitating cross‐border merger deals by analyzing a large international sample of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals. We provide evidence that the geographical proximity, cultural affinity, and local experience of investment banks advising bidding firms on cross‐border M&A deals significantly increase the probability of completion of the deal, significantly decrease the time required to complete the deal, and significantly increase the operating performance of the acquiring firm after the deal. Our results are robust to firm, deal, country‐specific factors, and endogeneity concerns

Author Correction: Moderate Nrf2 Activation by Genetic Disruption of Keap1 Has Sex-Specific Effects on Bone Mass in Mice

Correction to: Scientific Reports https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-57185-1, published online 15 January 202