Bio+Terror: Science, Security, Simulation

The United States government has spent more than $125 billion since 2001 to prepare the nation for bioterrorism. This dissertation examines the emergence of bioterrorism as a credible threat in the contemporary moment, considering how the preparedness practices of the security state constitute new biopolitical formations. To explore how changing ways of knowing disease and risk are reshaping communities, this multi-sited study investigates the material outcomes of biosecurity in people\u27s lives. It shows how complex histories of disease and terror are remade in the modern age to bring about new spaces and forms of biological citizenship.Through interview, observation and detailed historical research, this research considers three sites where bioterrorism is reshaping public life. At Montana\u27s Rocky Mountain Laboratory, the community protest of the first high-security Biosafety Level-4 facility built in the 21st century exemplifies how public fear of microbes reshapes laboratory spaces and constructs environmental geographies around new conceptions of life, risk, and disease. The creation and implementation of new biopreparedness programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta show how the alliance of public health practices with the nation\u27s security complex brings a new level of militarism to everyday practices of health and wellness. Finally, a case study of bioterrorism simulation exercises in New Mexico considers how the public rehearsal of terrorism events creates a perpetual state of emergency as governments and citizens publicly perform their responses to a crisis.By studying the technoscientific extensions of war in the modern age, this research questions how the care-giving acts of governance have been militarized and how enlisting the bioscience industry in the War on Terror is changing societal norms of knowing life, death, nature, and disease, grounded in these re-articulations of life itself. The emerging spaces and economies of terrorism preparedness exemplify how the fusion of new genomic biologies with national security practices brings material change to the spaces where people live and work. This research aims to convince scholars as well as policymakers and activists that the ways in which bioterrorism has been produced have consequences in how people live

Rumor Has It...

A curious graduate takes it upon herself to investigate four tales that have become part of campus lore -- and determine what\u27s fact and what\u27s fiction

Feedback for future learning: delivering enhancements and evidencing impacts on the student learning experience

Enhancing the student learning experience through the provision of improved student feedback is both challenging and complex. ‘Feedback for Future Learning’ was a Glasgow Caledonian University(GCU)-wide project intended to enhance feedback practices from both the student and staff perspectives; to ensure greater awareness of, and reflection upon, feedback by students; and to encourage greater use of feedback to inform future student learning. The design, implementation and evaluation of approaches to ‘Feedback for Future Learning’ are described with an emphasis on STEM disciplines. The conceptualisation, design and implementation of a range of student feedback tools and approaches aimed to develop understanding of learning processes, reinforce learning and improve performance. This was achieved through collaboration with the GCU Students’ Association and the establishment of the University Feedback Enhancement Group. A series of generic and bespoke seminars, workshops, individual programme interventions and competitions were used to enhance comprehension of the perception, experience and use of formative and summative assessment feedback by students.   Providing opportunities for reflection and evaluation together with qualitative and quantitative metrics have demonstrated 93% satisfaction with student feedback enhancement workshops, a trebling of engagement with memorable feedback survey initiatives and a 9% increase in National Student Survey assessment and feedback satisfaction. A 16% rise in student satisfaction with the promptness of feedback, a 14% improvement in satisfaction with the detailed comments received and an 8% increase in satisfaction with the helpfulness of comments received were achieved. The lessons learned inform the continuing and sustainable enhancement of the student learning experience for STEM students and the wider University community. Keywords: Feedback, future learning, dialogue, engagement, reflection, enhancemen

New Spaces: Safeguarding Students from Violence and Hate

Full report of the HEFCE Catalyst funded projectSexual assault, harassment, violence and hate crime on university campuses is a prevalent and pressing concern. A recent Universities UK taskforce report recommended that urgent action in this area is needed. Universities are significant sites for implementing a joined-up approach and tackling these issues. As a campus of Changemakers, students, inter-disciplinary researchers, professional and support staff at The University of Northampton decided to take action to address these significant and important issues, in particular within the context of a major campus move to a town centre location. As one of only 60 institutions across the country to be awarded funding from HEFCE’s Catalyst fund, this ‘New Spaces: Safeguarding Students from Violence and Hate’ cross collaborative project aimed to create vital partnerships in tackling sexual violence and hate crime on campus. The aims of the project were to evaluate existing policies and develop a student-led collaborative approach to identify what currently happens when disclosures are made; staff and student perceptions, knowledge and experiences within the campus transition; as well as providing recommendations for new institutional policies, strategies and recommendations to support students in reporting harassment, sexual abuse, sexual violence and hate crime. This project also contributes to HEFCE’s wider work in creating guidelines and recommendations for HEIs for addressing these issues. A survey of the published literature, as well as an evaluation of existing processes and policies at The University of Northampton were carried out within this project. Data collection involved 2 Staff and 2 student focus groups, as well as 11 interviews with members of the university management team. These were conducted to discuss staff and student experiences, what support was in place for disclosures and recommendations for future practice within the transition to the new campus. One of the student focus groups utilised photo-elicitation methods to allow students to visually conceptualise and create a new, safe campus space. Recommendations are provided for understanding the prevalence of these issues within a campus context; tackle normative beliefs which may influence how they are perceived; increasing knowledge and awareness of sexual violence and hate crime; implementing mechanisms for disclosure and reporting; addressing issues related to security measures and procedures; enhancing partnership working within the local community. These recommendations have local impact and are being used to inform institutional policies and procedures at The University. Project findings are also being implemented into HEFCE’s wider work and national action around these issues. Internationally, the dissemination of these findings is contributing to the limited research in this area

Characterisation of virulence functions encoded by human cytomegalovirus

HCMV is the largest human virus characterised to date, encoding approximately 165 open reading frames (ORFs). Due to many years of serial passage, laboratory adapted strains of HCMV, such as strain AD 169, have lost a 13-15kb region of genome, designated UUb', compared with HCMV clinical strains (Cha et al, 1996). Loss of this 13-15kb UUb' region is correlated with decreased virulence and increased sensitivity to Natural Killer (NK) cell lysis, leading to the hypothesis that the UUb' region is harbouring one or more NK evasion functions. A comprehensive screen of the UUb * region of HCMV strain Merlin to identify novel NK evasion functions has formed the focus of this study. The UUb1 region encompasses 23 ORFs from UL128 through to UL150. In addition, UL14, a homologue of the UUb' resident ORF UL141, and UL141A, a newly identified UUb' ORF, were included in this study as potential NK evasion functions. Using the AdEasy system and the newly developed AdZ system, the generation of recombinant adenoviruses (RAds) encoding for each of the 24 UUb' ORFs, plus the UL141 homologue, UL14, has been successful and provides a complete resource for the study of these proteins. The majority of the UUb' proteins were previously uncharacterised, and the incorporation of a C-terminal Streptag II has enabled preliminary characterisation of these ORFs. Producing the bank of UUb' RAds has also enabled a functional screen of this region in order to identify novel NK evasion functions. As a result of the systematic functional NK screen of the UUb' region, two novel NK evasion functions have been identified the UL141 homologue, UL14 and the UUb' resident ORF, UL135. Their identification brings the total number of NK evasion functions encoded by HCMV up to eight: UL40, UL16, UL18, UL83 (pp65), UL141, UL142, UL14 and UL135. These provide HCMV with an impressive arsenal dedicated to evasion of NK lysis, and are further evidence for the importance of NK cells in the control of HCMV. Further analysis of the NK evasion function encoded by UL14 revealed that similar to UL141, UL14 encodes an EndoH sensitive glycoprotein and was observed to co-localise with the ER resident protein, calnexin, consistent with gpUL14 being ER- retained. The biochemical similarities of the UL141 and UL14 NK evasion ORFs may be of functional significance, indicating that gpUL14 may also be sequestering an NK activating ligand within the cell similar to gpUL141 (Tomasec et al, 2005)

Teaching in the COVID-19 era: Understanding the opportunities and barriers for teacher agency

The school closures necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic created a rapid shift to alternative modes of educational delivery, primarily online learning and teacher-supported home-schooling. This shift has revealed deep inequities in education systems worldwide, as many children lost access to teachers and schooling. An effective response to these changes has tested teachers’ personal capacities and individual and collective agency intensely. The research lab we report on within this paper aimed to develop a better understanding of teacher agency in meeting the challenges of the pandemic and the physical and relational enablers and constraints of their environment. Drawing on case study reports from six international contexts and a series of online discussions with research lab participants, this study explores teachers’ enactment of agency in the context of various circumstances and environments. The authors argue that it is imperative that education systems support the enhancement of teachers’ personal and collective agency in the face of continued disruption to schooling and ongoing challenges to educational equity

Violation of Bells inequality using continuous variable measurements

A Bell inequality is a fundamental test to rule out local hidden variable model descriptions of correlations between two physically separated systems. There have been a number of experiments in which a Bell inequality has been violated using discrete-variable systems. We demonstrate a violation of Bells inequality using continuous variable quadrature measurements. By creating a four-mode entangled state with homodyne detection, we recorded a clear violation with a Bell value of $B = 2.31 \pm 0.02$. This opens new possibilities for using continuous variable states for device independent quantum protocols.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, lette