Developing sexual competence? Exploring strategies for the provision of effective sexualities and relationships education

School-based sexualities and relationships education (SRE) offers one of the most promising means of improving young people's sexual health through developing 'sexual competence'. In the absence of evidence on whether the term holds the same meanings for young people and adults (e.g. teachers, researchers, policy-makers), the paper explores 'adult' notions of sexual competence as construed in research data and alluded to in UK Government guidance on SRE, then draws on empirical research with young people on factors that affect the contexts, motivations and outcomes of sexual encounters, and therefore have implications for sexual competence. These data from young people also challenge more traditional approaches to sexualities education in highlighting disjunctions between the content of school-based input and their reported sexual experience. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these insights for developing a shared notion of what SRE is trying to achieve and suggestions for recognition in the content and approaches to SRE.</p

Structure of the deactive state of mammalian respiratory complex I

Complex I (NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase) is central to energy metabolism in mammalian mitochondria. It couples NADH oxidation by ubiquinone to proton transport across the energy-conserving inner membrane, catalyzing respiration and driving ATP synthesis. In the absence of substrates, ‘active’ complex I gradually enters a pronounced resting or ‘deactive’ state. The active-deactive transition occurs during ischemia and is crucial for controlling how respiration recovers upon reperfusion. Here, we set a highly-active preparation of Bos taurus complex I into the biochemically-defined deactive state, and used single-particle electron cryomicroscopy to determine its structure to 4.1 Å resolution. We show that the deactive state arises when critical structural elements that form the ubiquinone-binding site become disordered, and we propose reactivation is induced when substrate binding to the NADH-reduced enzyme templates their reordering. Our structure both rationalizes biochemical data on the deactive state, and offers new insights into its physiological and cellular roles.Data were recorded at the UK National Electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC) at Diamond (proposal EM13581, funded by the Wellcome Trust, MRC and BBSRC) with help from Dan Clare and Alistair Siebert. This work was supported by The Medical Research Council, grant numbers U105663141 (to J.H.) and U105184322 (K.R.V. in R. Henderson's group)

Quasi-Moessbauer effect in two dimensions

Expressions for the absorption spectrum of a nucleus in a three- and a two-dimensional crystal respectively are obtained analytically at zero and at finite temperature respectively. It is found that for finite temperature in two dimensions the Moessbauer effect vanishes but is replaced by what we call a Quasi-Moessbauer effect. Possibilities to identify two-dimensional elastic behavior are discussed.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, notation simplifie

Early Childhood Studies as a site for Education for Sustainability, Eco Literacy and Critical Pedagogy

This PhD by published work is a submission of a body of work completed within a period of four years. This narrative aims to offer a coherent context for my PhD journey, however, it also acknowledges that my ideologies, my epistemology leaks throughout this portfolio of evidence. The questions I have posed, the theorists I have chosen, what I report, and how I report my evidence are all ‘saturated by the leakages of mischievous lubricant and debris of autobiographical hauntings’ (Derrida cited in Boyne 1990, 1). Whilst proof is absolute and incontestable, the evidence presented in the portfolio allows for personal and professional subjectivities, what Bray et al, (2000) refer to as ‘meaning making’ through ‘cycles of action and reflection’ (90). The theme of Education for Sustainability is woven throughout the publications, and whilst there is a swathe of literature related to ESD, this body of work is unique in its attempt to acknowledge the synthesis between learning for ESD within higher education and the pedagogies associated with early childhood education and the developing research area of Early Childhood Education for Sustainability. The peer reviewed publications have been circulated within various communities of practice bringing the research area of Early Childhood Education for Sustainability into the higher education arena. With the 2030 agenda validating the importance of new ways of thinking and doing (UNESCO, 2015), the publications note the need for reflexivity which is reinforced by an uncertainty of the future (Jickling and Sterling, 2017). Core texts have been written and accessed by students on a BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies programme and publications capture place based and project based pedagogies to enable critical thinking as ‘an agential and political act’ (Hunter et al 2018, 50) and in terms of sustainability education, the critical thinking must activate students to reach beyond a skill set of reason and argument, to a more intentional uncovering of taken for granted understandings and ‘ways of knowing’ the world. Methodological considerations include conversational and discourse analytic methods which are inherently reflexive (Flick, 2011), Participatory action research and critical and visual methodologies are also represented. The sustainable practices noted in the publications may also provoke early childhood students and educators to think and act differently, not only about sustainability concerns, but also early childhood pedagogy and philosophy and critical pedagogies within higher education

Respiratory Complex I in Bos taurus and Paracoccus denitrificans Pumps Four Protons across the Membrane for Every NADH Oxidized.

Respiratory complex I couples electron transfer between NADH and ubiquinone to proton translocation across an energy-transducing membrane to support the proton-motive force that drives ATP synthesis. The proton-pumping stoichiometry of complex I (i.e. the number of protons pumped for each two electrons transferred) underpins all mechanistic proposals. However, it remains controversial and has not been determined for any of the bacterial enzymes that are exploited as model systems for the mammalian enzyme. Here, we describe a simple method for determining the proton-pumping stoichiometry of complex I in inverted membrane vesicles under steady-state ADP-phosphorylating conditions. Our method exploits the rate of ATP synthesis, driven by oxidation of NADH or succinate with different sections of the respiratory chain engaged in catalysis as a proxy for the rate of proton translocation and determines the stoichiometry of complex I by reference to the known stoichiometries of complexes III and IV. Using vesicles prepared from mammalian mitochondria (from Bos taurus) and from the bacterium Paracoccus denitrificans, we show that four protons are pumped for every two electrons transferred in both cases. By confirming the four-proton stoichiometry for mammalian complex I and, for the first time, demonstrating the same value for a bacterial complex, we establish the utility of P. denitrificans complex I as a model system for the mammalian enzyme. P. denitrificans is the first system described in which mutagenesis in any complex I core subunit may be combined with quantitative proton-pumping measurements for mechanistic studies

Written evidence submitted to Commons Select Committee Animal Welfare Inquiry

• While it is believed that the Animal Welfare Act is a valuable document, enforcement of its remits need to be strengthened • A range of recommendations are made focusing on the following areas: • The effectiveness of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 with regard to domestic pets • Regulation surrounding the sale of domestic pets, including online sales and advertising • Enforcement of current animal welfare legislation, including prosecution of offences by the police, local authorities, the RSPCA and others • Recommendations include • Introduction of an effective licensing system (for breeders and dog owners) • Bans on selling and advertising dogs on the internet • Community education events for dog owners • Introduction of a competitive system to decide on the authorised animal welfare enforcement agency • Greater investment in ground services such as number of inspector

The majority of re-activatable latent HIV proviruses are genetically distinct with no evidence of ongoing evolution

Background Two mechanisms have been proposed to contribute in to the maintenance of the HIV latent reservoir: homeostatic proliferation of latently infected cells and low level viral replication in the lymphoid tissue. Here we studied the sequences of reactivatable latent viruses obtained from a stably treated patient to assess the importance of these mechanisms. Methods Resting CD4+ T cells were isolated at regular intervals from the patient, underwent limiting dilution, were activated and then co-cultured with SupT1-CCR5 cells for 21 days. The supernatant was harvested for viral RNA. Regions in gag and env were analysed by Sanger sequencing. To control for artefacts from culture and sequencing, SupT1-CCR5 cells were infected with NL4-3 and underwent the same limiting dilution, culture, and sequencing processes. Pairwise comparisons were performed to obtain p-distances. Each pair of patient derived viral sequences was considered distinct if the p-distance was higher than that of the corresponding region of the sequences from NL4-3 infected SupT1-CCR5 cells. To seek evidence of viral evolution, a consensus was created from the viral sequences obtained from the first sample and sequences from samples obtained subsequently were compared against this baseline consensus. Results We obtained 32 sequences of reactivated latent viruses from a single patient. 18 distinct sequences could be distinguished from the gag region. The remaining 14 sequences segregated into five groups. However, when the env regions of these 14 sequences were analysed, only one ‘clonal’ group of two sequences remained. 30/32 reactivated latent viruses were distinct. If the threshold p-distance for two sequences to be considered distinct was set at the maximal (rather than average) p-distance observed in the reference set, 26/32 of reactivated latent viruses would still be considered distinct. We have not observed any increase in p-distances over 28 weeks of sampling compared to the baseline samples to suggest of accumulation of mutations. Conclusion Our results show that the majority of reactivatable latent viruses are genetically distinct. Persistent viral evolution was not observed in the latent reservoir harboured in peripheral blood resting CD4+ T cells in this stably treated patient