Avoiding the 'easy route': young peoples' socio-spatial experience of the outdoors in the absence of digital technology

Over-use of smartphones and under-engagement in outdoor pursuits are popularly touted as inter-dependent phenomena with various implications for the health and well-being of young people. At the same time, there has been a relative lack of social scientific scrutiny on the topic which, we contend, has been stifled by the imperative to avoid ontological distinctions between the ‘technological/virtual’ and the ‘real’, as well as deterministic renditions on the role of technology in social life. In this paper we provide evidence to reanimate this discussion by drawing into focus that, from the perspectives of young people themselves, there are and remain discernible differences in the socio-spatial relationships mediated by the presence/absence of technology in different settings. The empirical material draws on participant observation, walking- and group-interviews with young people taking part in the UK’s Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, which requires them to undertake outdoor expeditions without their smartphones. We use the metaphor of ‘avoiding the easy route’ to emphasise the differences in experience that manifest themselves for young people during co-present, and often more challenging, embodied encounters. We argue that co-present encounters with places and others are often fuller in terms of the breadth of embodied sensory experience, and often more difficult in terms of i) the kinaesthetic experience of place and ii) the non-selectivity of social relationships. The combination and sharing of these difficulties, we further argue, has a moral and political function in ordering young people's environmental and social values

Modification and Assessment of a Residential Summer Program for High School Women

The importance of reducing the gender gap in engineering programs by recruiting and retaining female students is well recognized. Although women hold roughly half of all jobs in the United States, only 24% of STEM jobs are occupied by women. The problem is even more pronounced for engineering, where women held about 12% of jobs as of 2013 (Corbett & Hill, 2015). Consequently, interactive, hands-on outreach programs are a common tool used by universities to encourage interest in engineering from K–12 students. Engineering—Get Into Real Learning (E-GIRL) is a week-long, residential summer program offered by Texas Tech University for female high school students. The primary goal of the program is to help participants make informed decisions about engineering majors and careers. To this aim, the purposes of the program are: (1) to offer a platform for female high school students to learn about the various disciplines of engineering offered at Texas Tech University and other universities; (2) to provide a realistic university experience, including coursework, social, and professional development opportunities; and (3) to provide hands-on exposure to a real-world engineering problem. E-GIRL ran for the second time in the summer of 2016, based on the favorable support it received in 2015. Primary components of this year’s program were a multidisciplinary group project focused on the theme of CO2 capture and storage, as well as a series of two-hour classes taught by university faculty and graduate students in the following six engineering disciplines: chemical engineering, civil engineering, environmental engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science. This paper presents the multidisciplinary structure of the program and its connection to the project that was assigned to program participants. The curriculum structure, the in-class activities, and the method of delivery for each discipline are explained in depth. The assessment of the program’s second year, including comparisons to the results from the first year and modifications to the program based on feedback from previous program participants, are discussed. Assessment was conducted through engineering skills assessment questionnaires, which required students to self-evaluate their competence in 18 skill sets before and after the program. These skill sets are qualities often identified to be important for engineers, and encompass traits associated with problem solving, project management, teamwork, and communication skills. Key results show improved self-assessment for most of the engineering skills after the program. Additionally, the skills that did not show improved self-assessment ratings after the program were consistent throughout both years. Qualitative results show a more matured and complete understanding of engineering and the individual engineering disciplines upon completion of the program. Through oral presentations, participants demonstrated in-depth engagement with the environmental conservation theme of the project. The environmental conservation theme is consistent with the participants’ aspirations for considering an engineering career and championing sustainability, which was highlighted by program participants in 2015 as a desired additional focus of the program. Overall, the program provided an opportunity for participants to experience the multidisciplinary nature of engineering, aided participants’ understanding of the roles of individual engineering disciplines, and furnished a realistic preview of student life in a university

Rural service hubs and socially innovative rural-urban linkages: A conceptual framework for nexogenous development

Co-locating services has become a common solution to the many longstanding challenges of service access and provision in rural areas. Rural service hubs – which offer two or more services at the same outlet – take many forms, typically responding to triggers for social innovation. Despite their growing ubiquity, however, rural service hubs have been little studied in comparative perspective. This article shifts the lens on service hubs from place-based solutions towards a broader, multi-scalar and multi-level perspective on rural connectivity. We propose a five dimension conceptual framework in contribution to the emerging theorisation of nexogenous rural development a model for resourceful reconnection beyond place and across rural–urban space. Drawing on examples from Austria, Finland and Wales, we illustrate how diverse service hub models mobilise social innovation, networks, scale and proximity to support service access and provision

Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund - Phase 3 Final Report LM04101

Executive Summary: Since 2017 Natural England has been analysing the Facilitation Fund in relation to its process and outcomes (phase 1 and 2 of Facilitation Fund evaluation). This report forms phase 3 of this evaluation process. The objective of this phase was to evaluate the benefits Facilitation Fund groups offer, measured against natural capital and social indicators with a particular focus on contributions to nature recovery and ecological restoration

A novel isoform of the Ly108 gene ameliorates murine lupus

Studies of human systemic lupus erythematosus patients and of murine congenic mouse strains associate genes in a DNA segment on chromosome 1 with a genetic predisposition for this disease. The systematic analysis of lupus-prone congenic mouse strains suggests a role for two isoforms of the Ly108 receptor in the pathogenesis of the disease. In this study, we demonstrate that Ly108 is involved in the pathogenesis of lupus-related autoimmunity in mice. More importantly, we identified a third protein isoform, Ly108-H1, which is absent in two lupus-prone congenic animals. Introduction of an Ly108-H1–expressing transgene markedly diminishes T cell–dependent autoimmunity in congenic B6.Sle1b mice. Thus, an immune response–suppressing isoform of Ly108 can regulate the pathogenesis of lupus.Peer Reviewe

Call for reimagining institutional support for PAR post-COVID

Although we believe academic researchers have a critical role to play in transformative systems change for social and ecological justice, we also argue that academic institutions have been (and continue to be) complicit in colonialism and in racialized, patriarchal capitalism. In this essay, we argue that if academia is to play a constructive role in supporting social and ecological resilience in the late stage Capitalocene epoch, we must move beyond mere critique to enact reimagined and decolonized forms of knowledge production, sovereignty, and structures for academic integrity. We use the pandemic as a moment of crisis to rethink what we are doing as PAR scholars and reflect on our experiences conducting PAR during the pandemic. A framework is presented for the reimaging of institutional support for the embedding of scholars in local social systems. We propose an academy with greater flexibility and consideration for PAR, one with increased funding support for community projects and community engagement offices, and a system that puts local communities first. This reimagining is followed by a set of our accounts of conducting PAR during the pandemic. Each account begins with an author's reflection on their experiences conducting PAR during the pandemic, focusing on how the current university system magnified the impacts of the pandemic. The author's reflection is then followed with a “what if” scenario were the university system changed in such a way that it mitigated or lessened the impacts of the pandemic on conducting PAR. Although this framework for a reimagined university is not a panacea, the reliance on strong in-place local teams, mutually benefiting research processes, and resources for community organizations putting in the time to collaborate with scholars can overcome many of the challenges presented by the pandemic and future crises

A Phase IIb, randomized, multicenter study of the efficacy of GVAX pancreas vaccine and CRS-207 compared to chemotherapy or to CRS-207 alone...

Background: A heterologous prime-boost vaccination strategy using GVAX pancreas vaccine and CRS-207 is showing promise in patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDA). GVAX is composed of lethally-irradiated, allogeneic pancreatic cancer cells modified to express GM-CSF and induces a broad response against multiple tumor antigens. GVAX is given with low-dose cyclophosphamide (CY) to inhibit regulatory T cells. CRS-207 is live-attenuated Listeria monocytogenes engineered to express the tumor-associated antigen mesothelin. CRS-207 boosts responses against mesothelin and is unique in its capacity to stimulate both innate and adaptive immunity by activating T cells and NK cells. In a recently completed Phase II study, the CY/GVAX plus CRS-207 combination resulted in statistically-significant improvement of overall survival (OS) compared to CY/GVAX alone (Le, GI ASCO 2014). Methods: This is a Phase IIb study comparing CY/GVAX and CRS-207 to chemotherapy or to CRS-207 alone in adults with previously-treated metastatic PDA. Subjects will be enrolled in two cohorts: 150 subjects into a primary cohort of patients with at least two prior treatment regimens for metastatic disease (3rd+ line) and 90 subjects into an exploratory cohort of patients with only one prior treatment regimen for metastatic disease (2nd line). Subjects will be randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive either 2 doses of CY/GVAX and 4 doses of CRS-207 (Arm A), 6 doses of CRS-207 (Arm B) or physician's choice of select single-agent chemotherapy (Arm C). The primary objective is to compare OS in the primary cohort between Arms A and C. Secondary/exploratory objectives include: comparison of OS in both primary and exploratory cohorts between all treatment arms, assessment of safety and clinical responses (tumor assessments and CA19-9 levels) and correlation of Lm- and mesothelin-specific T cell and other immunological responses with OS, progression-free survival and best overall response. (Sponsor: Aduro BioTech, Inc.; NCT02004262)

Corrigendum: Displacement of the scholar? Participatory action research under COVID-19

The impact of COVID-19 on conducting research is far-reaching, especially for those scholars working for or alongside communities. As the pandemic continues to create and exacerbate many of the issues that communities at the margins faced pre-pandemic, such as health disparities and access to resources, it also creates particular difficulties in collaborative, co-developed participatory research and scholar-activism. These forms of community engagement require the commitment of researchers to look beyond the purview of the racialized capitalist and neoliberal structures and institutions that tend to limit the scope of our research and engagement. Both the presence of the researcher within the community as well as deep community trust in the researcher is required in order to identify and prioritize local, often counter-hegemonic forms of knowledge production, resources, and support networks. The pandemic and similar conditions of crises has likely limited opportunities for building long-term, productive relationships of mutual trust and reciprocity needed for PAR while communities refocus on meeting basic needs. The pandemic has now not only exacerbated existing disparities and made the need for engaged, critical and co-creative partnerships even greater, it has also abruptly halted opportunities for partnerships to occur, and further constrained funds to support communities partnering with researchers. In this paper we highlight accomplishments and discuss the many challenges that arise as participatory action researchers are displaced from the field and classroom, such as funding obstacles and working remotely. An analysis of experiences of the displacement of the scholar exposes the conflicts of conducting PAR during crises within a state of academic capitalism. These experiences are drawn from our work conducting PAR during COVID-19 around the globe, both in urban and rural settings, and during different stages of engagement. From these findings the case is made for mutual learning from peer-experiences and institutional support for PAR. As future crises are expected, increased digital resources and infrastructure, academic flexibility and greater consideration of PAR, increased funding for PAR, and dedicated institutional support programs for PAR are needed

A Phase IIb, randomized, multicenter study of the efficacy of GVAX pancreas vaccine and CRS-207 compared to chemotherapy or to CRS-207 alone in adults with previously-treated metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma (eclipse study)

A heterologous prime-boost vaccination strategy using GVAX pancreas vaccine and CRS-207 is showing promise in patients with metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDA). GVAX is composed of lethally-irradiated, allogeneic pancreatic cancer cells modified to express GM-CSF and induces a broad response against multiple tumor antigens. GVAX is given with low-dose cyclophosphamide (CY) to inhibit regulatory T cells. CRS-207 is live-attenuated Listeria monocytogenes engineered to express the tumor-associated antigen mesothelin. CRS-207 boosts responses against mesothelin and is unique in its capacity to stimulate both innate and adaptive immunity by activating T cells and NK cells. In a recently completed Phase II study, the CY/GVAX plus CRS-207 combination resulted in statistically-significant improvement of overall survival (OS) compared to CY/GVAX alone (Le, GI ASCO 2014)