PARENTING, IDENTITY AND CULTURE IN AN ERA OF MIGRATION AND GLOBALIZATION: HOW BANGLADESHI PARENTS NAVIGATE AND NEGOTIATE CHILD-REARING PRACTICES IN THE USA

Globalization puts into challenge the singular notion of identity and culture. Immigrant parents must navigate multiple cultural systems and constantly redefine their identities in order to cope with a new way of being. This dissertation is aimed at learning about this cultural encounter faced by Bangladeshi immigrant parents living in Western Massachusetts region of the USA. More specifically, I studied immigrant Bangladeshi parents’ identity negotiations, their navigation of transnational spaces, and cultural negotiation in relation to their children’s schooling. My research is informed by cultural theories of immigration and globalization. Guattari’s concept of ‘existential territory’ (Guattari, 1995, 2000), Appadurai’s ideas of ‘scape’ in explaining the process of globalization (Appadurai, 1990, 1996, 2000, 2002), Hall’s concept of cultural identity (Hall, 1990) and Bhabha’s (1994) idea of cultural hybridity served as theoretical resources for the study. I followed qualitative research approach with a focus on experiential paradigm to learn about the subjective and lived experiences of parents. I used criteria-sampling (Patton, 2002) to select 13 parents from 8 families and conducted genogram construction, in-depth interviews and follow-up interviews with them. I also interviewed 2 family members, 4 adolescent children and 2 community members-all selected based on pre-established criteria. The findings related to first research question suggested that Bangladeshi parents were open to changes and made intentional choices to interconnect Bangladeshi and U.S. culture as they reconstructed their identities. The second theme discussed how parents navigated transnational spaces. Three physical spaces namely as Western Massachusetts, New York and Bangladesh created a sense of imagined, complex, interconnected homelands as they made sense of their cultural experiences of parenting. Findings related to the third research question revealed that parents showed a complex set of intentional behaviors such as enthusiasm, selectivity, compromise, reluctance and fear as they embraced hopes and opportunities and navigated competing and contradictory cultural demands of their children’s schooling. The central arguments of this dissertation situated parenting as nuance experiences of disjuncture, hope and opportunities where parents navigate culture and identity through intentionality and informed choices to create a newer form of existence in a globalized world

Development of a Taxonomy of Policy Levers to Promote High Quality School-Based Counseling

There is a lack of an established framework or taxonomy in the academic literature to systematically analyze school counseling policies. This study was conducted to fill in this gap. Specifically, the researchers propose an initial taxonomy developed based on review of relevant school counseling policy documents and research. The proposed taxonomy has 21 policy levers grouped under seven policy foci covering school counselors’ initial competence, continuing competence, effective school counseling practices, planning and evaluation of school counseling, distinct school counselor roles, hiring of school counselors, and the continual improvement of school counseling system. The Taxonomy is still in a developmental stage with a focus on improving its comprehensiveness through studies that identify additional policy levers from different countries. The authors also invite other academics and practitioners to conduct case studies using the taxonomy that will provide important knowledge to further improve the taxonomy

Why Is It So Difficult to Contribute to Social Inclusion Through Vocational Education and Training?

This paper compares “recognition of prior learning” (RPL) schemes in four countries, to find out the impact of VET policy reforms on social inclusion. The study finds that RPL schemes have only made limited contributions to social inclusion in these countries, for the following reasons: firstly, there are challenges in upper secondary VET, which, in all four countries, requires a substantial level of general education and transversal competencies, on which the key educational policy actors are not willing to compromise. Secondly, some countries used RPL to provide access to non-formal qualifications. Still, such schemes were only successful when those non-formal qualifications were already well-established in society and the labour market (prior to having been made accessible through RPL). The article argues that, for RPL to contribute more to social inclusion, schemes need to be less complicated and should also include complementary education and training provisions for all those who lack work experience in sectors where access to employment depends on certain qualifications

Noise based transmitted reference modulation for wireless sensor networks

Recent advances in the underlying technologies of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have led to its use in different applications, from fields as diverse as battlefield applications to temperature control to healthcare. Research in the different aspects of WSNs is therefore in full swing, in both academia and the industry. In the Wireless Ad-hoc Links using robust Noise-based Ultra-wideband Transmission (WALNUT) project, modulation concepts (and relevant MAC protocols) are intended to be explored which allow for robust ad-hoc radio links with radio nodes implemented on a single CMOS chip

Development of the Taxonomy of Policy Levers to Promote High Quality School-Based Counseling: An Initial Test of its Utility and Comprehensiveness

This article is the second of a two-part series that describes the development of the Taxonomy of Policy Levers to Promote High Quality School-Based Counseling. A previous article (Morshed & Carey, in press) described the development of the Taxonomy using content analysis of existing published descriptions of policy levers used to promote quality school-based counseling. This present article tested the utility and comprehensiveness of the Taxonomy by having experts from South Korea, Nigeria, and West Virginia review policies in their regions.. They analyzed the utility and comprehensiveness of the Taxonomy by using it to describe the school-based counseling policy landscape in their own contexts. Overall, the Taxonomy provided a useful framework for identifying policy levers that were implemented as well as the levers which were not implemented but could be put in place to further improve school-based counseling. Four additional levers were added, and the revised Taxonomy is presented. Additional research to expand the taxonomy is suggested, and the utility of the taxonomy to guiding policy research and evaluation is explained

Why Is It So Difficult to Contribute to Social Inclusion Through Vocational Education and Training? An Analysis of Policies to Promote the Recognition of Prior Learning in Bangladesh, North Macedonia, Sweden and Switzerland

This paper compares “recognition of prior learning” (RPL) schemes in four countries, to find out the impact of VET policy reforms on social inclusion. The study finds that RPL schemes have only made limited contributions to social inclusion in these countries, for the following reasons: firstly, there are challenges in upper secondary VET, which, in all four countries, requires a substantial level of general education and transversal competencies, on which the key educational policy actors are not willing to compromise. Secondly, some countries used RPL to provide access to non-formal qualifications. Still, such schemes were only successful when those non-formal qualifications were already well-established in society and the labour market (prior to having been made accessible through RPL). The article argues that, for RPL to contribute more to social inclusion, schemes need to be less complicated and should also include complementary education and training provisions for all those who lack work experience in sectors where access to employment depends on certain qualifications

Advances in osteobiologic materials for bone substitutes.

A significant challenge in the current orthopedics is the development of suitable osteobiologic materials that can replace the conventional allografts, autografts, and xenografts and thereby serve as implant materials as bone substitutes for bone repair or remodelling. The complex biology behind the nanostructure and microstructure of bones and their repair mechanisms, which involve various types of chemical and biomechanical signalling amongst different cells, has set strong requirements for biomaterials to be used in bone tissue engineering. This review presents an overview of various types of osteobiologic materials to facilitate the formation of the functional bone tissue and healing of the bone, covering metallic, ceramic, polymeric, and cell-based graft substitutes, as well as some biomolecular strategies including stem cells, extracellular matrices, growth factors, and gene therapies. Advantages and disadvantages of each type, particularly from the perspective of osteoinductive and osteoconductive capabilities, are discussed. Although the numerous challenges of bone regeneration in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine are yet to be entirely addressed, further advancements in osteobiologic materials will pave the way towards engineering fully functional bone replacement grafts.Qatar National Research Fund, Grant/Award Number: NPRP 9‐144‐3‐02

Recent Advances in Application of Biosensors in Tissue Engineering

Biosensors research is a fast growing field in which tens of thousands of papers have been published over the years, and the industry is now worth billions of dollars. The biosensor products have found their applications in numerous industries including food and beverages, agricultural, environmental, medical diagnostics, and pharmaceutical industries and many more. Even though numerous biosensors have been developed for detection of proteins, peptides, enzymes, and numerous other biomolecules for diverse applications, their applications in tissue engineering have remained limited. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in application of novel biosensors in cell culture and tissue engineering, for example, real-time detection of smallmolecules such as glucose, lactose, and H2O2 as well as serum proteins of large molecular size, such as albumin and alpha fetoprotein, and inflammatory cytokines, such as IFN-g and TNF

Transcription Factor YY1 Interacts with Retroviral Integrases and Facilitates Integration of Moloney Murine Leukemia Virus cDNA into the Host Chromosomes▿

Retroviral integrases associate during the early viral life cycle with preintegration complexes that catalyze the integration of reverse-transcribed viral cDNA into the host chromosomes. Several cellular and viral proteins have been reported to be incorporated in the preintegration complex. This study demonstrates that transcription factor Yin Yang 1 binds to Moloney murine leukemia virus, human immunodeficiency virus type 1, and avian sarcoma virus integrases. The results of coimmunoprecipitation and in vitro pulldown assays revealed that Yin Yang 1 interacted with the catalytic core and C-terminal domains of Moloney murine leukemia virus and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 integrases, while the transcriptional repression and DNA-binding domains of the Yin Yang 1 molecule interacted with Moloney murine leukemia virus integrase. Immunoprecipitation of the cytoplasmic fraction of virus-infected cells followed by Southern blotting and chromatin immunoprecipitation demonstrated that Yin Yang 1 associated with Moloney murine leukemia virus cDNA in virus-infected cells. Yin Yang 1 enhanced the in vitro integrase activity of Moloney murine leukemia virus, human immunodeficiency virus type 1, and avian sarcoma virus integrases. Furthermore, knockdown of Yin Yang 1 in host cells by small interfering RNA reduced Moloney murine leukemia virus cDNA integration in vivo, although viral cDNA synthesis was increased, suggesting that Yin Yang 1 facilitates integration events in vivo. Taking these results together, Yin Yang 1 appears to be involved in integration events during the early viral life cycle, possibly as an enhancer of integration

Methamphetamine induces cardiomyopathy by Sigmar1 inhibition-dependent impairment of mitochondrial dynamics and function

Methamphetamine-associated cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of death linked with illicit drug use. Here we show that Sigmar1 is a therapeutic target for methamphetamine-associated cardiomyopathy and defined the molecular mechanisms using autopsy samples of human hearts, and a mouse model of binge and crash methamphetamine administration. Sigmar1 expression is significantly decreased in the hearts of human methamphetamine users and those of binge and crash methamphetamine-treated mice. The hearts of methamphetamine users also show signs of cardiomyopathy, including cellular injury, fibrosis, and enlargement of the heart. In addition, mice expose to binge and crash methamphetamine develop cardiac hypertrophy, fibrotic remodeling, and mitochondrial dysfunction leading to contractile dysfunction. Methamphetamine treatment inhibits Sigmar1, resulting in inactivation of the cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB), decreased expression of mitochondrial fission 1 protein (FIS1), and ultimately alteration of mitochondrial dynamics and function. Therefore, Sigmar1 is a viable therapeutic agent for protection against methamphetamine-associated cardiomyopathy