Sex Education: The Effectiveness of Comprehensive-Based Compared to the Effectiveness of Abstinence-Only

Sex education has the potential to be a powerful way to educate children and adolescents about the risks and implications of sex. There currently is a debate about what type of information should be appropriately delivered to students in school; supporters of Comprehensive-Based sex education argue that information regarding Sexually Transmitted Diseases and contraceptives should be delivered to students, while supporters of Abstinence-Only sex education hold that the only method of safe sex that should be taught to students is abstinence. There are an alarming number of children and adolescents dealing with the consequences of unprotected sex, so sex education programs that reduce this number most effectively should be delivered to students in schools. It was hypothesized that children and adolescents who received Comprehensive-Based sex education would be more knowledgeable about safe sex, and practice safe sex more often in their lives. A quantitative study was distributed to 45 college-aged students to learn what type of sex education they received in school, and assess their safe sex knowledge and practices. The results supported the hypothesis that students who received Comprehensive-Based sex education knew more about safe sex practices and were able to put them into practice more often, but the results were not statistically significant. More extensive research should be conducted to a larger group of students who had just received their sex education in school in order to assess what type of sex education should be administered in schools

Deriving Properties of Stars with BASE-9 Software and the Vega Supercomputer

This research involves using a Bayesian Statistics software developed by Dr. Ted von Hippel and his team to determine properties of binary stars. This software, titled BASE-9, which stands for Bayesian Analysis of Stellar Evolution, can be used to derive the properties of stars and star clusters including age, metallicity, helium abundance, distance modulus, mass, binary mass ratios, and cluster membership probability. With this information, the impact of environment on the characteristics of binaries over time can be examined. This project has consisted of running thousands of stars within different clusters using the Vega Supercomputer in order to study the properties of binary systems. By using BASE-9 and Vega, these properties can be derived with much more precision and by more direct means than other commonly used methods. This research involves using a Bayesian Statistics software developed by Dr. Ted von Hippel and his team to determine properties of binary stars. This software, titled BASE-9, which stands for Bayesian Analysis of Stellar Evolution, can be used to derive the properties of stars and star clusters including age, metallicity, helium abundance, distance modulus, mass, binary mass ratios, and cluster membership probability. With this information, the impact of environment on the characteristics of binaries over time can be examined

Democracy as Becoming: A Lived Enquiry into Teacher Perspectives of Philosophy for/with Children (P4C) Practice in Irish Educate Together Schools

This thesis explores the practice of Philosophy for/with Children (P4C) in Irish Educate Together schools through teacher perspectives, encompassing wider themes of education and democracy in Ireland. Within this exploration is a focus on the articulation and analysis of teachers’ accounts of how they reconcile P4C pedagogies with their own educational outlooks within a P4C/Educate Together context, comprised of both their particular Educate Together school and the movement as a whole. The historical, social and political factors that led to the Educate Together movement’s development are charted, alongside other factors related to distinctive approaches to P4C practice in Ireland. The outcomes of this study show that focusing on child-centered perspectives expands and extends democracy as emergent and democracy as ‘a way of life’, particularly in terms of the possibility of democratic education in Ireland, enabled and enhanced through a P4C/Educate Together context. This research is a lived enquiry, involving deep immersion in the research environment as an embedded extern – that is, as both a researcher and a P4C practitioner. The ‘livedness’ of this research incorporates the social dimension of John Dewey’s theory of enquiry, where a combination of lived experiences and dialogic exchanges were fused together by the social relationships forged throughout my research journey. A thematic analysis of participant interviews encase the unfolding events of this reflexive practitioner research. This study reveals an interrelationship between P4C and Educate Together that encompasses the shared territories of dialogue and child. Such an interrelationship enables the creation of democratic spaces, inhabited by both adults and children, and facilitated by Irish Educate Together teachers engaging in P4C within their classrooms, expressed through the idea of democracy as ‘becoming’. Such a contextual space provide opportunities for adults and children to live and learn in and through democratic processes. By showing how democracy can be enacted as a living value in this way, the implications of this study point towards the importance of educational policy and practice at a time when global educational policy seems to be moving further and further towards a market-led consumer-based idea of education, where standards of attainment, centralised models and technical rationality is priority. Further implications of this study relate to educational research, particularly practitioner research, with regard to the depth of insight revealed through a lived enquiry as an embedded extern, and concern the conceptualisation and realisation of an emergent sense of democracy where children are central.Hibernia College Irelan

In Silico Assigned Resistance Genes Confer Bifidobacterium with Partial Resistance to Aminoglycosides but Not to Β-Lactams

peer-reviewedBifidobacteria have received significant attention due to their contribution to human gut health and the use of specific strains as probiotics. It is thus not surprising that there has also been significant interest with respect to their antibiotic resistance profile. Numerous culture-based studies have demonstrated that bifidobacteria are resistant to the majority of aminoglycosides, but are sensitive to β-lactams. However, limited research exists with respect to the genetic basis for the resistance of bifidobacteria to aminoglycosides. Here we performed an in-depth in silico analysis of putative Bifidobacterium-encoded aminoglycoside resistance proteins and β-lactamases and assess the contribution of these proteins to antibiotic resistance. The in silico-based screen detected putative aminoglycoside and β-lactam resistance proteins across the Bifidobacterium genus. Laboratory-based investigations of a number of representative bifidobacteria strains confirmed that despite containing putative β-lactamases, these strains were sensitive to β-lactams. In contrast, all strains were resistant to the aminoglycosides tested. To assess the contribution of genes encoding putative aminoglycoside resistance proteins in Bifidobacterium sp. two genes, namely Bbr_0651 and Bbr_1586, were targeted for insertional inactivation in B. breve UCC2003. As compared to the wild-type, the UCC2003 insertion mutant strains exhibited decreased resistance to gentamycin, kanamycin and streptomycin. This study highlights the associated risks of relying on the in silico assignment of gene function. Although several putative β-lactam resistance proteins are located in bifidobacteria, their presence does not coincide with resistance to these antibiotics. In contrast however, this approach has resulted in the identification of two loci that contribute to the aminoglycoside resistance of B. breve UCC2003 and, potentially, many other bifidobacteria.Fiona Fouhy is in receipt of an Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology EMBARK scholarship and is a Teagasc Walsh fellow. Research in the PDC laboratory is supported by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan through the Science Foundation Ireland Investigator award 11/PI/1137. Research in the RPR, CS, PDC and DvS laboratories is also supported by the Science Foundation of Ireland-funded Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology, the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (grant no.s 02/CE/B124 and 07/CE/B1368) and a HRB postdoctoral fellowship (Grant no. PDTM/20011/9) awarded to MOCM

Enabling, hearing and giving weight to students’ views of special schooling in 21st century Ireland: do ‘dilemmas of difference’ apply?

Special schooling is increasingly under the microscope, with theory, policy and practice converging towards inclusive education, and Irish legislation enshrining the principle o f inclusive education fo r children who have special educational needs. Central to current debate is the question o f whether or not to recognise difference: this has become known as the ‘dilemma o f difference'. In recent years, another social movement has also come under the microscope, with increased emphasis and discourse on the concept o f children’s rights / views o f children. Both o f these themes are central aspects o f this study. This study aims to ascertain the views o f students who attend one special school, and in particular whether ‘dilemmas o f difference’ apply fo r them. Using a range o f different strategies such as focus groups, individual and paired interviews and written and pictorial data created by participants, students ’ views on schooling are gathered and analysed. An overarching theoretical perspective combining an open thesis o f insider epistemology, a relational theory o f the subject, and a social relational model o f disability is used to fram e the study. The findings are that dilemmas o f difference do apply fo r at least some o f the participants, in particular in relation to identification, location and the status o f the school. A dilemma o f difference in respect o f curriculum was fo u n d not to apply in this study. This study is significant fo r the manner in which research is conducted with young people with special educational needs, and its findings have implications fo r policy makers and practitioners. While the movement towards inclusive schooling continues, it is apt to consider and to give due weight to the views o f students, including those attending special schools

Socializing, networking and development: a report from the second ‘Young Microbiologists Symposium on Microbe Signalling, Organization and Pathogenesis’

In mid-June, the second Young Microbiologists Symposium took place under the broad title of ‘Microbe signalling, organization and pathogenesis’ on the picturesque campus of University College Cork, Ireland. The symposium attracted 150 microbiologists from 15 different countries. The key feature of this meeting was that it was specifically aimed at providing a platform for junior scientists to present their work to a broad audience. The meeting was principally supported by Science Foundation Ireland with further backing from the Society for General Microbiology, the American Society for Microbiology and the European Molecular Biology Organization. Sessions focused on microbial gene expression, biogenesis, pathogenicity and host interaction. In this MicroMeeting report, we highlight some of the most significant advances and exciting developments reported during various talks and poster presentations given by the young and talented microbiologists

Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003 metabolises the human milk oligosaccharides lacto-N-tetraose and lacto-N-neo-tetraose through overlapping, yet distinct pathways

In this study, we demonstrate that the prototype B. breve strain UCC2003 possesses specific metabolic pathways for the utilisation of lacto-N-tetraose (LNT) and lacto-N-neotetraose (LNnT), which represent the central moieties of Type I and Type II human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), respectively. Using a combination of experimental approaches, the enzymatic machinery involved in the metabolism of LNT and LNnT was identified and characterised. Homologs of the key genetic loci involved in the utilisation of these HMO substrates were identified in B. breve, B. bifidum, B. longum subsp. infantis and B. longum subsp. longum using bioinformatic analyses, and were shown to be variably present among other members of the Bifidobacterium genus, with a distinct pattern of conservation among human-associated bifidobacterial species

Identification and characterization of a glycosulfatase-encoding gene cluster in Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003

Bifidobacteria constitute a specific group of commensal bacteria, typically found in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of humans and other mammals. Bifidobacterium breve strains are numerically prevalent among the gut microbiota of many healthy breast-fed infants. In the current study, we investigated glycosulfatase activity in a bacterial nursling stool isolate, B. breve UCC2003. Two putative sulfatases were identified on the genome of B. breve UCC2003. The sulfated monosaccharide N-acetylglucosamine-6-sulfate (GlcNAc-6-S) was shown to support growth of B. breve UCC2003, while, N-acetylglucosamine-3-sulfate, N-acetylgalactosamine-3-sulfate and N-acetylgalactosamine-6-sulfate, did not support appreciable growth. Using a combination of transcriptomic and functional genomic approaches, a gene cluster, designated ats2, was shown to be specifically required for GlcNAc-6-S metabolism. Transcription of the ats2 cluster is regulated by a ROK-family transcriptional repressor. This study represents the first description of glycosulfatase activity within the Bifidobacterium genus. Bifidobacteria are saccharolytic organisms naturally found in the digestive tract of mammals and insects. Bifidobacterium breve strains utilize a variety of plant and host-derived carbohydrates which allow them to be present as prominent members of the infant gut microbiota as well as being present in the gastrointestinal tract of adults. In this study, we introduce a previously unexplored area of carbohydrate metabolism in bifidobacteria, namely the metabolism of sulfated carbohydrates. B. breve UCC2003 was shown to metabolize N-acetylglucosamine-6-sulfate (GlcNAc-6-S) through one of two sulfatase-encoding gene clusters identified on its genome. GlcNAc-6-S can be found in terminal or branched positions of mucin oligosaccharides, the glycoprotein component of the mucous layer that covers the digestive tract. The results of this study provide further evidence of this species' ability to utilize mucin-derived sugars, a trait which may provide a competitive advantage in both the infant and adult gut

Expanding the molecular toolbox for Lactococcus lactis: construction of an inducible thioredoxin gene fusion expression system

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The development of the Nisin Inducible Controlled Expression (NICE) system in the food-grade bacterium <it>Lactococcus lactis </it>subsp. <it>cremoris </it>represents a cornerstone in the use of Gram-positive bacterial expression systems for biotechnological purposes. However, proteins that are subjected to such over-expression in <it>L. lactis </it>may suffer from improper folding, inclusion body formation and/or protein degradation, thereby significantly reducing the yield of soluble target protein. Although such drawbacks are not specific to <it>L. lactis</it>, no molecular tools have been developed to prevent or circumvent these recurrent problems of protein expression in <it>L. lactis</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mimicking thioredoxin gene fusion systems available for <it>E. coli</it>, two nisin-inducible expression vectors were constructed to over-produce various proteins in <it>L. lactis </it>as thioredoxin fusion proteins. In this study, we demonstrate that our novel <it>L. lactis </it>fusion partner expression vectors allow high-level expression of soluble heterologous proteins Tuc2009 ORF40, Bbr_0140 and Tuc2009 BppU/BppL that were previously insoluble or not expressed using existing <it>L. lactis </it>expression vectors. Over-expressed proteins were subsequently purified by Ni-TED affinity chromatography. Intact heterologous proteins were detected by immunoblotting analyses. We also show that the thioredoxin moiety of the purified fusion protein was specifically and efficiently cleaved off by enterokinase treatment.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study is the first description of a thioredoxin gene fusion expression system, purposely developed to circumvent problems associated with protein over-expression in <it>L. lactis</it>. It was shown to prevent protein insolubility and degradation, allowing sufficient production of soluble proteins for further structural and functional characterization.</p