Enhancing SET Teaching at Level 3

The initial source of motivation for this report was the national response to the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) Report It’s All About Work (2013), and it addresses an issue that remains relevant to the current discussion about the creation of Professional and Technical Pathways to employment - the contribution that excellent vocational teaching and learning makes to the development of the forms of expertise that employers’ require and that facilitate learners’ continuing employability. In the course of discussions between the Gatsby Foundation and the research team the following rationale, focus and outcome was agreed. In the case of the former, to develop a conceptual framework to investigate vocational pedagogy that drew on insights from the academic and grey literature and, in the case of focus, to use that framework to investigate learning and teaching in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) programmes at Level 3 in a variety of SET contexts. In order to do so, it was recognised that it would be important for the research team to take account of the way in which colleges respond to known as well as emerging employer demand for SET skills

Children's construction task performance and spatial ability: controlling task complexity and predicting mathematics performance.

This paper presents a methodology to control construction task complexity and examined the relationships between construction performance and spatial and mathematical abilities in children. The study included three groups of children (N = 96); ages 7-8, 10-11, and 13-14 years. Each group constructed seven pre-specified objects. The study replicated and extended previous findings that indicated that the extent of component symmetry and variety, and the number of components for each object and available for selection, significantly predicted construction task difficulty. Results showed that this methodology is a valid and reliable technique for assessing and predicting construction play task difficulty. Furthermore, construction play performance predicted mathematical attainment independently of spatial ability

TCR Signal Transduction in Antigen-Specific Memory CD8 T Cells

Memory T cells are more responsive to Ag than naive cells. To determine whether memory T cells also have more efficient TCR signaling, we compared naive, effector, and memory CD8 T cells of the same antigenic specificity. Surprisingly, initial CD3 signaling events are indistinguishable. However, memory T cells have more extensive lipid rafts with higher phosphoprotein content before TCR engagement. Upon activation in vivo, they more efficiently induce phosphorylation of-LAT (linker for activation of T cells), ERK (extracellular signal-regulated kinase), JNK (c-Jun N-terminal kinase), and p38. Thus, memory CD8 T cells do not increase their TCR sensitivity, but are better poised to augment downstream signals. We propose that this regulatory mechanism might increase signal transduction in memory T cells, while limiting TCR cross-reactivity and autoimmunity

Pulmonary Aspergillosis: A Review on Diagnosis and Management

Aspergillosis is acquired by inhalation of spores of Aspergillus, a ubiquitous species in the environment. In normal hosts, spore inhalation rarely causes lung disease. Pulmonary aspergillosis covers a wide spectrum of clinical syndromes depending on the interaction between Aspergillus and the host (immune-status, prior bronchopulmonary disease). It runs the gamut from invasive aspergillosis to Aspergillus bronchitis and colonization. Invasive aspergillosis occurs in severely immunocompromised patients, typically with neutropenia. Chronic pulmonary aspergillosis affects patients with chronic structural lung disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, mycobacterial lung disease, but without significant immunocompromise. Aspergillus bronchitis affects patients with bronchial disease such as bronchiectasis. Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis affects patients with bronchial asthma or cystic fibrosis, and is due to an allergic response to Aspergillus. In this review of literature, we discuss the pulmonary manifestations of Aspergillus infection, its diagnosis and treatments

Physical activity when young provides lifelong benefits to cortical bone size and strength in men

The skeleton shows greatest plasticity to physical activity-related mechanical loads during youth but is more at risk for failure during aging. Do the skeletal benefits of physical activity during youth persist with aging? To address this question, we used a uniquely controlled cross-sectional study design in which we compared the throwing-to-nonthrowing arm differences in humeral diaphysis bone properties in professional baseball players at different stages of their careers (n = 103) with dominant-to-nondominant arm differences in controls (n = 94). Throwing-related physical activity introduced extreme loading to the humeral diaphysis and nearly doubled its strength. Once throwing activities ceased, the cortical bone mass, area, and thickness benefits of physical activity during youth were gradually lost because of greater medullary expansion and cortical trabecularization. However, half of the bone size (total cross-sectional area) and one-third of the bone strength (polar moment of inertia) benefits of throwing-related physical activity during youth were maintained lifelong. In players who continued throwing during aging, some cortical bone mass and more strength benefits of the physical activity during youth were maintained as a result of less medullary expansion and cortical trabecularization. These data indicate that the old adage of “use it or lose it” is not entirely applicable to the skeleton and that physical activity during youth should be encouraged for lifelong bone health, with the focus being optimization of bone size and strength rather than the current paradigm of increasing mass. The data also indicate that physical activity should be encouraged during aging to reduce skeletal structural decay