EFL Teachers' Attitudes Towards Teaching Cross-Curricular Topics

Juhendaja: Berk VaherCross-curricular topics have been in the Estonian National curriculum for many years now; including them in lessons has evoked controversial opinions among teachers. Teaching cross-curricular topics in EFL classrooms is a good way to include them in lessons because languages can be means for learning different subjects. Cross-curricular topics help to make learning the language more relevant and offer a chance to include topics that prepare students for real life experiences. There are various different ways how to teach cross-curricular topics and everything does not have to be done in a classroom, a lot can be done outside lessons and through extracurricular activities. The present thesis looks into teaching cross-curricular topics in English classes. It gives an overview of the cross-curricular topics in the Estonian National Curriculum, the methods and materials used for teaching cross-curricular topics and the attitudes teachers’ have towards teaching cross-curricular topics. A survey was conducted among EFL teachers of Estonia to see what ate the teachers’ attitudes towards teaching cross-curricular topics and how they teach the topics. Chapter one is based on secondary sources and gives an overview of crosscurricular topics, their development throughout history and their presentation in different educational documents. Various methods for teaching cross-curricular topics and for including them in schools’ environment are discussed. Chapter two introduces the procedure and the results of a research conducted among Estonian EFL teachers. Sample of 90 EFL teachers from different schools in Estonia were questioned. The main aim of the research was to see what the EFL teachers’ attitudes towards teaching cross-curricular topics are and to compare the results with other researches done on this topic

Rahvusvähemuste kaasamine Eesti erakondade poolt

“Minority engagement by the political parties in Estonia” The Government of the Republic of Estonia has incorporated a number of references in year 2011 to its regulation regarding the responsibility to engage stakeholder parties in the state policy making processes as well as to gauge the implications of such engagement. Furthermore, on the same year the Government approved “Good Engagement Practices”, a document articulating straightforward guidelines for planning and executing engagement of stakeholder parties aiming to improve the overall quality of engagement practices by state agencies. Demonstrating a proactive approach to identifying best practices of engagement the Government has transmitted a clear signal to the public that it is its firm intent to increase transparency in policy making and to launch a widespread dialogue with a range of stakeholder parties of the public. Interestingly, with the advent of Government-sponsored engagement propagation the most potent topic, engagement of minorities, has found next-to-none coverage by the politicians in the public media, especially in the wake of the “Bronze night” unrest in April 2007. What are the underlying reasons for such a development, a lack of initiative, engagement and dialogue? Is the referred silence in aether alluding that the principal difficulties related to the integration policy of the minorities have been successfully resolved? Inspired by the rising importance of stakeholder engagement in Estonian society as well as the state objective to engage minority groups in the framework of integration policy the current master's thesis primarily concerns with studying minority engagement policies and practices in Estonia. In the framework of political communication studies the particular objective of the current master's thesis is to research the attitudes, goals and perceptions of Estonian political parties regarding minority engagement. Concordantly, the attitudes and perceptions of the minority groups are explored, too. The findings are juxtaposed in order to investigate potential shifts (misunderstandings) in perceiving the communication between political parties and minority groups in the framework of minority engagement and integration policies. Furthermore, the master's thesis aims to gauge how the political parties assess the postoccupation era integration policy in Estonia. Finally, the master's thesis examines engagement practices of state agenencies and representative attitudes of key officials towards the integration policy. The particular research questions of the master's thesis are as follows: a) How can be best described the attitude and approach to minority engagement by the political parties in Estonia? How do political parties execute their respective policies and engage minority groups? (Do the political parties view and target minorities as a distinct segment? Why do the political parties engage minority groups? How do the attitude and approach to minority engagement differ by the political parties in Estonia? Do the political parties appreciate the importance and implications of the state integration policy? Why? How do the political parties assess the state integration policy executed since re-establishment of the country's independence? What are the best practices for minority engagement? How do the political parties view a minority group's chances to directly influence the development of state policy?) b) Does the nation state discourse clash with that of citizen state? (How do the politicial parties understand and characterize a nation state concept in Estonia? How do the political parties assess and characterize a minority representative's chances to participate in state building in the framework of citizen engagement? What is the viewpoint of the politicial parties on multicultural state concept?) c) What constitutes the body of principles and accepted practices for state agencies in communication with minority groups? (Do the state agencies view and target minorities as a distinct segment? Are the state agencies' engagement practices rather influenced by the ideology of the leading minster's political party or by the best practices proposed by experts? What are the best practices of (minority) engagement?) The introductory theoretical section of the work provides an overview of the discussions by Brubaker, Smith and Gellner on nationalism as well as highlights the theories on state building by Lintz and Stepan. Furthermore, the introduction provides the reader with principles of engagement, specifically in the framework developed by Arnstein. Additionally, the principal politicial ideologies of Estonian political parties are introduced so as to provide backdrop for assessing the parties' approaches to minority engagement. Finally, the empirical groundwork from secondary survey sources is presented highlighting the key variables affecting minority participation in state building: language proficiency, attitudes towards the state and political preferences. The third section of the work provides primary material for discussion. Semi-structured interviews with key representatives of political parties and state agencies deliver unique raw material. Application of grounded theory and rigorous text analysis enable to cast light behind the scenes and understand the political undercurrents shaping Estonia's minority-oriented policy, but also to map out the best practices of engagement tried and tested by state agencies. The fifth section of the work presents the key findings, synthesis and aswers to research questions. In overall, the interviewed key representatives of political parties and state agencies did not consider nor perceive Estonia as a single nation state. The ethnic Estonian majority co-existing with alien minority groups is not in conflict with the Estonian nation state concept according to the interviewed politicians. On the other hand, Estonian society has yet to progress from ethnic nation state concept to political citizen state concept. The interviewed individuals identified the importance of citizen state society as a development milestone. However, according to them, a very young and inexperienced citizen society as well as the generally passive leitmotif in Estonia is to be blamed for slow pace in the development towards citizen state. Interestingly, the interviewed politicians and officials did not manage to properly conceptualize the impact of citizen-oriented approach for the benefit of the society's development. Should it be characterized by a strong grass roots movement able to assume political responsibility or a select number of representative political parties geared to promote a narrow agenda of sponsored interests? The interviews demonstrated a consensus on valuing and nurturing cultural differences and native language practices in the framework of cultural engagement. All interviewed politicians aknowledged the importance of the integration policy, mainly due the fact that the benefit dedicating attention and resources to the topic is far greater than ignoring the topic completely. Such a viewpoint renders the minority groups to be viewd as a resource for the benefit of the state and society. Minority groups are actively engaged by the current oposition parties based on universalist value-driven political ideology, whereas the current government parties execute a significantly more passive engagement policy based on, also universalist, but pragmatic realpolitik idealogy. In the Arnstein framework of engagement Estonian political parties and state agencies value open information communication practices. However, not all minority stakeholders are reached in the second tier consultancy phase, because the political parties rather interact with cultural associations of the minority groups. Due to low level of proactive grass roots engagement in Estonian society, the political parties are deprived of a social partner to engage and consult with. The interviewed representatives of the state agencies aknowledge great responsibility to nurture a positive environment to promote social engagement and its best practices. However, currently the Arnstein consulting and engagement practices are in their infancy and thus not executed properly.http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2612115~S1*es

High Prevalence of Both Humoral and Cellular Immunity to Zaire ebolavirus among Rural Populations in Gabon

To better understand Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV) circulation and transmission to humans, we conducted a large serological survey of rural populations in Gabon, a country characterized by both epidemic and non epidemic regions. The survey lasted three years and covered 4,349 individuals from 220 randomly selected villages, representing 10.7% of all villages in Gabon. Using a sensitive and specific ELISA method, we found a ZEBOV-specific IgG seroprevalence of 15.3% overall, the highest ever reported. The seroprevalence rate was significantly higher in forested areas (19.4%) than in other ecosystems, namely grassland (12.4%), savannah (10.5%), and lakeland (2.7%). No other risk factors for seropositivity were found. The specificity of anti-ZEBOV IgG was confirmed by Western blot in 138 individuals, and CD8 T cells from seven IgG+ individuals were shown to produce IFN-γ after ZEBOV stimulation. Together, these findings show that a large fraction of the human population living in forested areas of Gabon has both humoral and cellular immunity to ZEBOV. In the absence of identified risk factors, the high prevalence of “immune” persons suggests a common source of human exposure such as fruits contaminated by bat saliva. These findings provide significant new insights into ZEBOV circulation and human exposure, and raise important questions as to the human pathogenicity of ZEBOV and the existence of natural protective immunization

Intestinal intraepithelial lymphocyte activation promotes innate antiviral resistance.

Unrelenting environmental challenges to the gut epithelium place particular demands on the local immune system. In this context, intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL) compose a large, highly conserved T cell compartment, hypothesized to provide a first line of defence via cytolysis of dysregulated intestinal epithelial cells (IEC) and cytokine-mediated re-growth of healthy IEC. Here we show that one of the most conspicuous impacts of activated IEL on IEC is the functional upregulation of antiviral interferon (IFN)-responsive genes, mediated by the collective actions of IFNs with other cytokines. Indeed, IEL activation in vivo rapidly provoked type I/III IFN receptor-dependent upregulation of IFN-responsive genes in the villus epithelium. Consistent with this, activated IEL mediators protected cells against virus infection in vitro, and pre-activation of IEL in vivo profoundly limited norovirus infection. Hence, intraepithelial T cell activation offers an overt means to promote the innate antiviral potential of the intestinal epithelium.Support was provided by the Wellcome Trust (A.C.H., J.L.H., G.R) and Cancer Research UK (A.C.H.), Department of Health via the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre award to Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (L.A.-D.; A.C.H.); Marie Curie and EMBO fellowships (M.S.).This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150519/ncomms8090/full/ncomms8090.html

The neuropeptide NMU amplifies ILC2-driven allergic lung inflammation

Type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s) both contribute to mucosal homeostasis and initiate pathologic inflammation in allergic asthma. However, the signals that direct ILC2s to promote homeostasis versus inflammation are unclear. To identify such molecular cues, we profiled mouse lung-resident ILCs using single-cell RNA sequencing at steady state and after in vivo stimulation with the alarmin cytokines IL-25 and IL-33. ILC2s were transcriptionally heterogeneous after activation, with subpopulations distinguished by expression of proliferative, homeostatic and effector genes. The neuropeptide receptor Nmur1 was preferentially expressed by ILC2s at steady state and after IL-25 stimulation. Neuromedin U (NMU), the ligand of NMUR1, activated ILC2s in vitro, and in vivo co-administration of NMU with IL-25 strongly amplified allergic inflammation. Loss of NMU-NMUR1 signalling reduced ILC2 frequency and effector function, and altered transcriptional programs following allergen challenge in vivo. Thus, NMUR1 signalling promotes inflammatory ILC2 responses, highlighting the importance of neuro-immune crosstalk in allergic inflammation at mucosal surfaces

Human but not mouse hepatocytes respond to interferon-lambda in vivo

The type III interferon (IFN) receptor is preferentially expressed by epithelial cells. It is made of two subunits: IFNLR1, which is specific to IFN-lambda (IFN-γ) and IL10RB, which is shared by other cytokine receptors. Human hepatocytes express IFNLR1 and respond to IFN-γ. In contrast, the IFN-γ response of the mouse liver is very weak and IFNLR1 expression is hardly detectable in this organ. Here we investigated the IFN-γ response at the cellular level in the mouse liver and we tested whether human and mouse hepatocytes truly differ in responsiveness to IFN-γ. When monitoring expression of the IFN-responsive Mx genes by immunohistofluorescence, we observed that the IFN-γ response in mouse livers was restricted to cholangiocytes, which form the bile ducts, and that mouse hepatocytes were indeed not responsive to IFN-γ. The lack of mouse hepatocyte response to IFN-γ was observed in different experimental settings, including the infection with a hepatotropic strain of influenza A virus which triggered a strong local production of IFN-γ. With the help of chimeric mice containing transplanted human hepatocytes, we show that hepatocytes of human origin readily responded to IFN-γ in a murine environment. Thus, our data suggest that human but not mouse hepatocytes are responsive to IFN-γ in vivo. The non-responsiveness is an intrinsic property of mouse hepatocytes and is not due to the mouse liver micro-environment. © 2014 Hermant et al

Crystal structure of the trimeric prefusion EBOV GP viewed from the top (above) and side (below) [21].

<p>The three monomers in the complex are colored different shades of grey. Immunodominant regions identified in GP are indicated in color for survivors and asymptomatic patients. The color code matches that of the epitopes identified in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0096360#pone-0096360-g003" target="_blank">Figure 3</a>. Molecular surface of the GP trimer viewed from the side (left) and top (right), as viewed down the three-fold axis. Protein Data Bank file number: 3CSY.</p

Mean OD values at 1∶400 serum dilution in patients infected with EBOV during three outbreaks in Gabon, 7 days after symptom onset (Day 7, early humoral response) and 7 or 11 years later (2008, late humoral response), and also in anti-EBOV IgG+ asymptomatic individuals who had never had clinical signs of hemorrhagic fever or who lived in non epidemic areas*.

<p>ODs are color-coded to indicate their intensity (yellow to red). The different colored regions in the proteins indicate the immunodominant domains identified here. *Blank cells indicate that the mean OD was lower than the cut-off. OD: Optical Density. The absorbance cut-off used to identify reactive epitopes is described in the Methodology section.</p

Map of Gabonese villages where the 1996 and 2001 outbreaks occurred.

<p>Map of Gabonese villages where the 1996 and 2001 outbreaks occurred.</p