Transforming teacher education, an activity theory analysis

This paper explores the work of teacher education in England and Scotland. It seeks to locate this work within conflicting socio-cultural views of professional practice and academic work. Drawing on an activity theory framework that integrates the analysis of these contradictory discourses with a study of teacher educators’ practical activities, including the material artefacts that mediate the work, the paper offers a critical perspective on the social organisation of university-based teacher education. Informed by Engeström’s activity theory concept of transformation, the paper extends the discussion of contradictions in teacher education to consider the wider socio-cultural relations of the work. The findings raise important questions about the way in which teacher education work within universities is organised and the division of labour between schools and universities

Predictions of Heat Transfer and Flow Circulations in Differentially Heated Liquid Columns With Applications to Low-Pressure Evaporators

Numerical computations are presented for the temperature and velocity distributions of two differentially heated liquid columns with liquor depths of 0.1 m and 2.215 m, respectively. The temperatures in the liquid columns vary considerably with respect to position for pure conduction, free convection, and nucleate boiling cases using one-dimensional (1D) thermal resistance networks. In the thermal resistance networks the solutions are not sensitive to the type of condensing and boiling heat transfer coefficients used. However, these networks are limited and give no indication of velocity distributions occurring within the liquor. To alleviate this issue, two-dimensional (2D) axisymmetric and three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the test rigs have been performed. The axisymmetric conditions of the 2D simulations produce unphysical solutions; however, the full 3D simulations do not exhibit these behaviors. There is reasonable agreement for the predicted temperatures, heat fluxes, and heat transfer coefficients when comparing the boiling case of the 1D thermal resistance networks and the CFD simulations

Tension pneumothorax in a newborn after Cesarean-section delivery -A case report-

Tension pneumothorax in newborns is a rare but life-threatening complication. We encountered a case of a full-term neonate with a breech presentation. An elective cesarean section was scheduled. Immediately after delivery, the newborn was found to be breathless with a heart rate <60/min. During intubation and cardiac massage, the patient's femoral artery and vein were accessed. The infantogram revealed a right side tension pneumothorax. A 22 gauge needle thoracentesis relieved the right side chest pressure and a closed thoracostomy was performed. The severe acidosis was corrected with sodium bicarbonate. The patient was managed in the neonatal intensive care unit, but died from uncorrectable acidosis. We report this case with a review of the relevant literature

The Effort of Increasing Reynolds Number in Projection-Based Reduced Order Methods: From Laminar to Turbulent Flows

We present in this double contribution two different reduced order strategies for incompressible parameterized Navier-Stokes equations characterized by varying Reynolds numbers. The first strategy deals with low Reynolds number (laminar flow) and is based on a stabilized finite element method during the offline stage followed by a Galerkin projection on reduced basis spaces generated by a greedy algorithm. The second methodology is based on a full order finite volume discretization. The latter methodology will be used for flows with moderate to high Reynolds number characterized by turbulent patterns. For the treatment of the mentioned turbulent flows at the reduced order level, a new POD-Galerkin approach is proposed. The new approach takes into consideration the contribution of the eddy viscosity also during the online stage and is based on the use of interpolation. The two methodologies are tested on classic benchmark test cases

Antidepressant activity of anti-cytokine treatment: a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials of chronic inflammatory conditions.

Inflammatory cytokines are commonly elevated in acute depression and are associated with resistance to monoaminergic treatment. To examine the potential role of cytokines in the pathogenesis and treatment of depression, we carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of antidepressant activity of anti-cytokine treatment using clinical trials of chronic inflammatory conditions where depressive symptoms were measured as a secondary outcome. Systematic search of the PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO and Cochrane databases, search of reference lists and conference abstracts, followed by study selection process yielded 20 clinical trials. Random effect meta-analysis of seven randomised controlled trials (RCTs) involving 2370 participants showed a significant antidepressant effect of anti-cytokine treatment compared with placebo (standardised mean difference (SMD)=0.40, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.22-0.59). Anti-tumour necrosis factor drugs were most commonly studied (five RCTs); SMD=0.33 (95% CI; 0.06-0.60). Separate meta-analyses of two RCTs of adjunctive treatment with anti-cytokine therapy and eight non-randomised and/or non-placebo studies yielded similar small-to-medium effect estimates favouring anti-cytokine therapy; SMD=0.19 (95% CI, 0.00-0.37) and 0.51 (95% CI, 0.34-0.67), respectively. Adalimumab, etanercept, infliximab and tocilizumab all showed statistically significant improvements in depressive symptoms. Meta-regression exploring predictors of response found that the antidepressant effect was associated with baseline symptom severity (P=0.018) but not with improvement in primary physical illness, sex, age or study duration. The findings indicate a potentially causal role for cytokines in depression and that cytokine modulators may be novel drugs for depression in chronically inflamed subjects. The field now requires RCTs of cytokine modulators using depression as the primary outcome in subjects with high inflammation who are free of other physical illnesses.GMK is supported by a Clinical Lecturer Starter Grant from the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK (grant no. 80354) and a Gosling Fellowship from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK (2015). GMK also received funding support from the Wellcome Trust 094790/Z/10/Z). PBJ acknowledges grant sup port from the Wellcome Trust (095844/Z/11/Z & 088869/Z/09/Z) and NIHR (RP-PG-0606-1335, Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and CLAHRC East of England). RD has received grants from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (grants R01 NS073939; R01 NS074999).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Nature Publishing Group via http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/mp.2016.16

Ultraviolet Irradiation Induces the Accumulation of Chondroitin Sulfate, but Not Other Glycosaminoglycans, in Human Skin

Ultraviolet (UV) light alters cutaneous structure and function. Prior work has shown loss of dermal hyaluronan after UV-irradiation of human skin, yet UV exposure increases total glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content in mouse models. To more fully describe UV-induced alterations to cutaneous GAG content, we subjected human volunteers to intermediate-term (5 doses/week for 4 weeks) or single-dose UV exposure. Total dermal uronyl-containing GAGs increased substantially with each of these regimens. We found that UV exposure substantially increased dermal content of chondroitin sulfate (CS), but not hyaluronan, heparan sulfate, or dermatan sulfate. UV induced the accumulation of both the 4-sulfated (C4S) and 6-sulfated (C6S) isoforms of CS, but in distinct distributions. Next, we examined several CS proteoglycan core proteins and found a significant accumulation of dermal and endothelial serglycin, but not of decorin or versican, after UV exposure. To examine regulation in vitro, we found that UVB in combination with IL-1α, a cytokine upregulated by UV radiation, induced serglycin mRNA in cultured dermal fibroblasts, but did not induce the chondroitin sulfate synthases. Overall, our data indicate that intermediate-term and single-dose UVB exposure induces specific GAGs and proteoglycan core proteins in human skin in vivo. These molecules have important biologic functions and contribute to the cutaneous response to UV

That’s another story: an alternative to the ‘official’ way the urban school story is told

This article, co-authored by two research-active teachers with the support of their academic partner, reports on the resistance of an urban primary school in a northern city of England to the label ‘disadvantaged school’ and various judgements that refuse to take into account its holistic work with students and families from different and diverse minority ethnic backgrounds. The article will argue that there are flaws in the ways the school’s story is officially told where it does not acknowledge what is being done to address students’ experiences of immigration, poverty and deprivation, and the cultural barriers they often negotiate in coming to school. As a driver for change, practitioner research foregrounds the authenticity of school and classroom contexts and puts them under scrutiny as a means of informing strategic decisions. Utilising a case study design, this paper pulls together a range of data evidence to construct its narrative and tell the school’s story, working in collaboration with its university academic partner. In doing so, it contributes to our understanding of practitioner research within challenging urban school settings, under pressure from centralised conceptualisations of achievement gaps and school performance. It puts many of these ideas under scrutiny and asks fundamental questions about curriculum, pedagogy and accountability