An ethnographic study of school leavers in a southern comprehensive school

This thesis is an ethnographic study of white and West Indian-origin girls and boys attending a comprehensive school in the south of England during their final year of compulsory schooling. The study concentrates on gender, race and class effects on school experiences; attitudes towards school; career choices and early employment or training destinations. Ethnographic data comprise both classroom observations and discussions with 20 informants. These are supplemented by questionnaire data from the entire 5th form year. Chapter 1 outlines the nature of existing research in this field and argues for the need to look at gender, race and class simultaneously to understand the impact of such factors on the lives of pupils. It also addresses methodological considerations and the problem of gaining access. Chapter 2 describes the process of starting research whilst Chapter 3 describes the school, its local context and its internal organisation. Chapter 4 provides an introduction to the 5th year and their teachers drawing largely on classroom observations. Gender, race and class receive individual attention in Chapters 5, 6 and 7 respectively. Chapter 5 indicates that gender was a powerful discriminator in classroom and breaktime interactions whilst Chapter 6 shows that racist humour and beliefs were a regular feature of school life despite a lack of racial discord at the school. Chapter 7 demonstrates that class consciousness existed amongst pupils and informed their attitudes towards school and work. Chapter 8 concentrates on career choices and the quality of careers advice concluding that career choices were both gender and class-specific. Chapter 9 focuses on pupils' early destinations after the 5th form finding that both black and white girls were more likely than boys to utilise 6th form to gain entry into middle-class occupations. For those seeking employment, black girls fared least well being more reliant on YTS and suffering greater unemployment. Overall, gender and class had greatest impact on school experiences and career choices whilst race in conjunction with gender, affected actual destinations

Interprofessional Team Immersion: Team Resilience

Healthcare practitioners take on the responsibility of helping clients maintain or improve their quality of life. Interprofessional collaboration is a key aspect of treating clients in order to provide them with the best possible care. Each healthcare profession has their own therapeutic process, yet they compliment each other very well. The state of the research shows that high functioning healthcare teams can improve the quality of care provided to clients by decreasing communication failures and reducing medical errors (Babikar, et al., 2014; Rosen et al., 2018; Smith, et al., 2018). The aim of the Interprofessional Team Immersion (IPTI) was to provide University of New England and Rosalind Franklin University students with the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each healthcare profession and have a chance to practice communication skills in a telehealth setting. The current group included students from occupational therapy, physical therapy, social work, osteopathic medicine, allopathic medicine, dental hygiene, and nursing programs. The immersion consisted of 10 total hours, 80 minutes of which were dedicated to direct patient care with client actors. At the end of IPTI, students concluded that they felt more confident defining the roles and responsibilities of other healthcare professionals. It was evident that communication played a key role in the successful approaches the team took, and having opportunities to get to know one another outside of patient simulations allowed the team to build trust, leadership, and cohesion (Cohen-Konrad et. al, 2014). Students also felt that their motivational interviewing skills and ability to navigate difficult client interactions improved because of the IPTI experience.https://dune.une.edu/cecespring2022/1005/thumbnail.jp

Identification of three wheat globulin genes by screening a Triticum aestivum BAC genomic library with cDNA from a diabetes-associated globulin

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Exposure to dietary wheat proteins in genetically susceptible individuals has been associated with increased risk for the development of Type 1 diabetes (T1D). Recently, a wheat protein encoded by cDNA WP5212 has been shown to be antigenic in mice, rats and humans with autoimmune T1D. To investigate the genomic origin of the identified wheat protein cDNA, a hexaploid wheat genomic library from Glenlea cultivar was screened.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Three unique wheat globulin genes, <it>Glo-3A</it>, <it>Glo3-B </it>and <it>Glo-3C</it>, were identified. We describe the genomic structure of these genes and their expression pattern in wheat seeds. The <it>Glo-3A </it>gene shared 99% identity with the cDNA of WP5212 at the nucleotide and deduced amino acid level, indicating that we have identified the gene(s) encoding wheat protein WP5212. Southern analysis revealed the presence of multiple copies of <it>Glo-3</it>-like sequences in all wheat samples, including hexaploid, tetraploid and diploid species wheat seed. Aleurone and embryo tissue specificity of WP5212 gene expression, suggested by promoter region analysis, which demonstrated an absence of endosperm specific <it>cis </it>elements, was confirmed by immunofluorescence microscopy using anti-WP5212 antibodies.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken together, the results indicate that a diverse group of globulins exists in wheat, some of which could be associated with the pathogenesis of T1D in some susceptible individuals. These data expand our knowledge of specific wheat globulins and will enable further elucidation of their role in wheat biology and human health.</p

Promoting Healthy Development among Adolescent Girls: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of the HERstory Program

The Leadership Program’s HERstory is a school-based, universal, preventative intervention designed to promote healthy youth development among adolescent girls by increasing their connections to pro-social peers and to school and community while developing social-emotional skills that serve as protective factors. In this school-year-long program, a facilitator implements three program phases: group development activities in Community Building, self-reflective Writing Workshop exercises, and a final Creative Output project, an ethnographic theater production or literary journal developed from participants’ Writing Workshop responses. The current mixed-methods study presents early evidence of program effectiveness based on focus groups and school record data review at two NYC public schools during the 2010-2011 school year. Participants reported improvements in key areas targeted by HERstory, including peer connectedness, academic achievement, and a range of protective factors including future orientation and goal setting. Results suggest this program approach may be suitable promoting healthy adolescent development for girls

Options for basing Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) on chronic disease endpoints: report from a joint US-/Canadian-sponsored working group.

Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) are used in Canada and the United States in planning and assessing diets of apparently healthy individuals and population groups. The approaches used to establish DRIs on the basis of classical nutrient deficiencies and/or toxicities have worked well. However, it has proved to be more challenging to base DRI values on chronic disease endpoints; deviations from the traditional framework were often required, and in some cases, DRI values were not established for intakes that affected chronic disease outcomes despite evidence that supported a relation. The increasing proportions of elderly citizens, the growing prevalence of chronic diseases, and the persistently high prevalence of overweight and obesity, which predispose to chronic disease, highlight the importance of understanding the impact of nutrition on chronic disease prevention and control. A multidisciplinary working group sponsored by the Canadian and US government DRI steering committees met from November 2014 to April 2016 to identify options for addressing key scientific challenges encountered in the use of chronic disease endpoints to establish reference values. The working group focused on 3 key questions: 1) What are the important evidentiary challenges for selecting and using chronic disease endpoints in future DRI reviews, 2) what intake-response models can future DRI committees consider when using chronic disease endpoints, and 3) what are the arguments for and against continuing to include chronic disease endpoints in future DRI reviews? This report outlines the range of options identified by the working group for answering these key questions, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of each option

Promoting Healthy Development among Adolescent Girls: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of the HERstory Program

The Leadership Program’s HERstory is a school-based, universal, preventative intervention designed to promote healthy youth development among adolescent girls by increasing their connections to pro-social peers and to school and community while developing social-emotional skills that serve as protective factors. In this school-year-long program, a facilitator implements three program phases: group development activities in Community Building, self-reflective Writing Workshop exercises, and a final Creative Output project, an ethnographic theater production or literary journal developed from participants’ Writing Workshop responses. The current mixed-methods study presents early evidence of program effectiveness based on focus groups and school record data review at two NYC public schools during the 2010-2011 school year. Participants reported improvements in key areas targeted by HERstory, including peer connectedness, academic achievement, and a range of protective factors including future orientation and goal setting. Results suggest this program approach may be suitable promoting healthy adolescent development for girls

Mortality among contraceptive pill users: cohort evidence from Royal College of General Practitioners’ Oral Contraception Study

Objective To see if the mortality risk among women who have used oral contraceptives differs from that of never users

Angiotensin-converting-enzyme gene polymorphisms, smoking and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

While tobacco smoking is the main risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) only a fraction of smokers go on to develop the disease. We investigated the relationship between the insertion (I) – deletion (D) polymorphisms in the Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) gene and the risk of developing COPD in smokers by determining the distribution of the ACE genotypes (DD, ID and II) in 151 life-long male smokers. 74 of the smokers had developed COPD (62 ± 2 years; FEV1 44 ± 6 % reference) whereas the rest retained normal lung function (56 ± 2 yrs; FEV1 95 ± 3 % reference). In addition, we genotyped 159 males recruited randomly from the general population. The prevalence of the DD genotype was highest (p = 0.01) in the smokers that developed COPD and its presence was associated with a 2-fold increase in the risk for COPD (OR 2.2; IC95% 1.1 to 5.5). Surprisingly, the 151 individuals in the smoking population did not demonstrate Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium unlike the 159 recruited from the general population. Our results suggest that ACE polymorphisms are associated with both the smoking history of an individual and their risk of developing COPD

Kodoja : a workflow for virus detection in plants using k-mer analysis of RNA-sequencing data

This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/N023293/1]. The work of L.T., S.J., S.M. and P.C.was additionally supported by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services division (RESAS)RNA-sequencing of plant material allows for hypothesis-free detection of multiple viruses simultaneously. This methodology relies on bioinformatics workflows for virus identification. Most workflows are designed for human clinical data, and few go beyond sequence mapping for virus identification. We present a new workflow (Kodoja) for the detection of plant virus sequences in RNA-sequence data. Kodoja uses k-mer profiling at the nucleotide level and sequence mapping at the protein level by integrating two existing tools Kraken and Kaiju. Kodoja was tested on three existing RNA-seq datasets from grapevine, and two new RNA-seq datasets from raspberry. For grapevine, Kodoja was shown to be more sensitive than a method based on contig building and blast alignments (27 viruses detected compared to 19). The application of Kodoja to raspberry, showed that field-grown raspberries were infected by multiple viruses, and that RNA-seq can identify lower amounts of virus material than reverse transcriptase PCR. This work enabled the design of new PCR-primers for detection of Raspberry yellow net virus and Beet ringspot virus. Kodoja is a sensitive method for plant virus discovery in field samples and enables the design of more accurate primers for detection. Kodoja is available to install through Bioconda and as a tool within Galaxy.PostprintPeer reviewe