Teachers’ perspectives on leadership model in practice: the case of Niuean School Leaders

The Small Island Developing States of the Pacific are experiencing a plethora of educational reform initiatives which poses tremendous challenges to their education systems. Effective implementation and management of educational reforms require school leaders to demonstrate effective leadership practices. Using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) which (Kouzes and Posner, Leadership practices inventory, Wiley, San Francisco, CA, Kouzes and Posner, Leadership practices inventory, Wiley, San Francisco, CA, 2013) developed to examine leadership practices of school leaders, this preliminary study elicits teachers’ perspectives of their school leaders’ practices in Niuean schools. Participants were teachers of the two schools in Niue, and analysis of the data relied on two basic statistical descriptors, the mean and the standard deviation. The results show strengths in the LPI’s area called ‘encouraging the heart’. Meanwhile, leadership dimensions needing attention and development include the LPI areas of ‘modelling the way’, ‘challenging the process’, ‘inspiring a shared vision’, and ‘enabling others to act’. Implications of these results are applicable to other developing contexts within and beyond the Pacific region for leadership preparation and development and to improve leadership practices, which is an essential ingredient in school improvement and effectiveness

Relationship between CD4 T cell turnover, cellular differentiation and HIV persistence during ART

The precise role of CD4 T cell turnover in maintaining HIV persistence during antiretroviral therapy (ART) has not yet been well characterized. In resting CD4 T cell subpopulations from 24 HIV-infected ART-suppressed and 6 HIV-uninfected individuals, we directly measured cellular turnover by heavy water labeling, HIV reservoir size by integrated HIV-DNA (intDNA) and cell-associated HIV-RNA (caRNA), and HIV reservoir clonality by proviral integration site sequencing. Compared to HIV-negatives, ART-suppressed individuals had similar fractional replacement rates in all subpopulations, but lower absolute proliferation rates of all subpopulations other than effector memory (TEM) cells, and lower plasma IL-7 levels (p = 0.0004). Median CD4 T cell half-lives decreased with cell differentiation from naïve to TEM cells (3 years to 3 months, p<0.001). TEM had the fastest replacement rates, were most highly enriched for intDNA and caRNA, and contained the most clonal proviral expansion. Clonal proviruses detected in less mature subpopulations were more expanded in TEM, suggesting that they were maintained through cell differentiation. Earlier ART initiation was associated with lower levels of intDNA, caRNA and fractional replacement rates. In conclusion, circulating integrated HIV proviruses appear to be maintained both by slow turnover of immature CD4 subpopulations, and by clonal expansion as well as cell differentiation into effector cells with faster replacement rates

Strengthening collaboration with the community for sustainable development: implications for school leadership

The study reported here focused on school-community partnership that is directly related to school-wide improvements. Specifically, it explored school leaders’ perceptions of challenges faced in establishing a strong relationship with the school-community for sustainable development. The participants for the study were rural high school principals from different geographical settings located in the rugged terrain of Fiji. Data for the study were gathered from interviews with these participants who attended a school leadership training programme. The data showed that the school leaders faced difficulties in working collaboratively with the school-community to expand and enhance students learning opportunities. The challenges of establishing networks and creating meaningful partnerships can be partially explained by their lack of adequate professional preparation in specific-leadership skills. The existence of such inadequacies resulting from the lack of systematic training of the school leaders hampers the quality of education their schools can provide. This has implications for the children’s learning outcomes, the school community’s expectations for education and government’s investment in education

MOESM1 of Design, characterization and in vivo functioning of a light-dependent histidine protein kinase in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Additional file 1. Additional tables and figure

Intimate partner violence and incident depressive symptoms and suicide attempts: a systematic review of longitudinal studies.

BACKGROUND: Depression and suicide are responsible for a substantial burden of disease globally. Evidence suggests that intimate partner violence (IPV) experience is associated with increased risk of depression, but also that people with mental disorders are at increased risk of violence. We aimed to investigate the extent to which IPV experience is associated with incident depression and suicide attempts, and vice versa, in both women and men. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies published before February 1, 2013. More than 22,000 records from 20 databases were searched for studies examining physical and/or sexual intimate partner or dating violence and symptoms of depression, diagnosed major depressive disorder, dysthymia, mild depression, or suicide attempts. Random effects meta-analyses were used to generate pooled odds ratios (ORs). Sixteen studies with 36,163 participants met our inclusion criteria. All studies included female participants; four studies also included male participants. Few controlled for key potential confounders other than demographics. All but one depression study measured only depressive symptoms. For women, there was clear evidence of an association between IPV and incident depressive symptoms, with 12 of 13 studies showing a positive direction of association and 11 reaching statistical significance; pooled OR from six studies = 1.97 (95% CI 1.56-2.48, I²  =  50.4%, p(heterogeneity = 0.073). There was also evidence of an association in the reverse direction between depressive symptoms and incident IPV (pooled OR from four studies = 1.93, 95% CI 1.51-2.48, I²  =  0%, p = 0.481). IPV was also associated with incident suicide attempts. For men, evidence suggested that IPV was associated with incident depressive symptoms, but there was no clear evidence of an association between IPV and suicide attempts or depression and incident IPV. CONCLUSIONS: In women, IPV was associated with incident depressive symptoms, and depressive symptoms with incident IPV. IPV was associated with incident suicide attempts. In men, few studies were conducted, but evidence suggested IPV was associated with incident depressive symptoms. There was no clear evidence of association with suicide attempts