Personal tutoring: a recognition of ‘levelness’ in the support for undergraduates

The changing terrain of higher education in the UK, and particularly the greater diversity of the student body, has undoubtedly led to the need for universities to provide greater support, both from frontline teaching staff and in the provision of extra institutional services.  Added to the mix are sectoral concerns for the wellbeing and welfare of the student.  It is therefore unsurprising that we are seeing a renewed focus on, and interest in, personal tutoring.  Taking a qualitative approach, we set out to explore the needs of undergraduate students, on an event management programme, in relation to personal tutoring.  Outlined in this paper are the different senses of personal tutoring as student transition through their course.&nbsp

KT Force - Knowledge as a Value: Regional Implementation Plan

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The KTForce INTERREG IVC project involves, at its core. the benchmarking and investigation of best practices in knowledge transfer policies and practices at regional level. Its ultimate goal is to Improve Europe's innovation environment. The project focuses on three components within Knowledge Transfer (KT) and seeks to assess and benchmark these within an innovation and regional development context. KTForce looks at how university-industry relations can be enhanced, how technology licensing can be improved and the Identification of the optimum conditions for creating spin-outs and increasing entrepreneurial activity. Along with a brief contextualisation of the South East Region of Ireland this booklet gives a concise overview of the overall methodology set up and applied over the course of the KT project. Specifically. this booklet provides a characterisation of the South East Region, the focus (however. most data available is only for the Southern and Eastern region). through a regional SWOT analysis supported by detailed illustration of both scenario 0 and future scenarios. based on the analysis of key innovation performance indicators. In considering both practices and policies relevant to knowledge transfer, at national and regional levels. the process for practice selection and implementation and the analysis used for policy benchmarking are also illustrated. This booklet ends with the main conclusions and some policy recommendations resulting from the analysis and work performed over the course of the KT Force project

An exploration of the relationship between emotional well-being and academic engagement among female students in a single sex post-primary school in Ireland

The overall aim of this qualitative research was to explore the relationship between emotional well-being and academic engagement amongst students during the second year of post-primary education. Student well-being is of central importance in education (DES 2017) and guidance counsellors are regularly faced with difficulties in second year including issues with friends, loss of interest and motivation, dissatisfaction with school and disengagement from learning. This research study focuses on capturing the lived experiences of students through focus group interviews, and guidance counsellors through face to face interviews, in order to gain insights and inform future policy and practice in guidance counselling. The research is a case study involving 25 second year student participants from the case study school and 3 guidance counsellors from other schools. The researcher considers that a gap for such interpretivist research exists in light of current literature related to adolescent well-being and mental health promotion (DCYA 2017, DES 2017, OECD 2015, WHO 2016). From a policy and practice perspective, it is clear that adolescents need help with emotional difficulties such as stress and anxiety (OECD 2015). The key findings that emerged confirm that there is a significant relationship between students’ emotional well-being and their academic engagement during second year. The study shows that students who are confident, happy, and emotionally healthy (DES 2015) during second year, cope better with life’s challenges (WHO 2016) and are more likely to remain academically engaged

Imaging glutamate redistribution after acute N-acetylcysteine administration: A simultaneous PET/MR study

Glutamate is the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the human brain, but in vivo imaging of acute fluctuations in glutamatergic levels has not been well established. The purpose of this study was to examine acute changes in glutamate after stimulation with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) using a simultaneous positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance spectroscopy (PET/MRS) approach. Ten healthy adult males were examined in two scanning sessions, and 5g NAC was administered 1 h prior to one of the scan sessions. Simultaneous PET/MR data were acquired using an integrated 3T PET/MR scanner. Glutamate (Glu), glutamine (Gln), and glutamate + glutamine (Glx) levels were assessed from MRS data collected from the basal ganglia with PRESS and from the left prefrontal cortex with PRESS and MEGAPRESS, and mGluR5 binding (BPND) was assessed from PET data collected with [F-18]PSS232. NAC administration was associated with a significant reduction in Glx and Gln in the basal ganglia spectra, and in Glx in the frontal MEGAPRESS spectra (p < 0.05); no differences in [F-18]PSS232 BPND were observed with NAC, although a correlation between pre-/post-treatment Glx and baseline BPnd was found. The MRS-visible Glx signal is sensitive to acute fluctuations in glutamate. The change in Glx was mostly driven by a change in Gln, lending weight to the notion that Gln can provide a proxy marker for neurotransmitter/synaptic glutamate. [F-18]PSS232 binding is not sensitive to acute glutamate shifts independently, but was associated with the extent of glutamate liberation upon NAC stimulation

Imaging glutamate redistribution after acute N-acetylcysteine administration: A simultaneous PET/MR study

Glutamate is the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the human brain, but in vivo imaging of acute fluctuations in glutamatergic levels has not been well established. The purpose of this study was to examine acute changes in glutamate after stimulation with N-acetylcysteine (NAC) using a simultaneous positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance spectroscopy (PET/MRS) approach. Ten healthy adult males were examined in two scanning sessions, and 5g NAC was administered 1 h prior to one of the scan sessions. Simultaneous PET/MR data were acquired using an integrated 3T PET/MR scanner. Glutamate (Glu), glutamine (Gln), and glutamate + glutamine (Glx) levels were assessed from MRS data collected from the basal ganglia with PRESS and from the left prefrontal cortex with PRESS and MEGAPRESS, and mGluR5 binding (BP) was assessed from PET data collected with [F]PSS232. NAC administration was associated with a significant reduction in Glx and Gln in the basal ganglia spectra, and in Glx in the frontal MEGAPRESS spectra (p < 0.05); no differences in [F]PSS232 BP were observed with NAC, although a correlation between pre-/post-treatment Glx and baseline BPnd was found. The MRS-visible Glx signal is sensitive to acute fluctuations in glutamate. The change in Glx was mostly driven by a change in Gln, lending weight to the notion that Gln can provide a proxy marker for neurotransmitter/synaptic glutamate. [F]PSS232 binding is not sensitive to acute glutamate shifts independently, but was associated with the extent of glutamate liberation upon NAC stimulation

Dynamic changes in cerebral and peripheral markers of glutamatergic signaling across the human sleep-wake cycle

Both sleep and glutamatergic signaling in the brain are tightly controlled and homeostatically regulated. Sleep homeostasis is reliably reflected by predictable changes in brain electrical activity in waking and sleep, yet the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Current hypotheses posit that recovery sleep following prolonged waking restores efficient functioning of the brain, for example by keeping glutamatergic signaling in a homeostatic range. We recently provided evidence in humans and mice that metabotropic glutamate receptors of subtype-5 (mGluR5) contribute to the brain's coping mechanisms with sleep deprivation. Here we combined in 31 healthy men, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure the levels of glutamate (Glu), GLX (glutamate-to-glutamine ratio) and GABA (γ-amino-butyric-acid) in basal ganglia (BG) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, simultaneous positron emission tomography to quantify mGluR5 availability with the novel radioligand, [18F]PSS232, and quantification in blood plasma of the mGluR5-regulated proteins, fragile-X mental retardation protein (FMRP) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). All measurements were conducted at the same circadian time in baseline, following sleep deprivation and after recovery sleep. We found that Glu and GLX in BG (pall &lt; 0.01), but not in prefrontal cortex, and the plasma concentration of FMRP (p &lt; 0.02), were increased after sleep loss and tended to normalize following recovery sleep (pall &lt; 0.1). Furthermore, a night without sleep enhanced whole-brain and striatal mGluR5 availability and was normalized by recovery sleep (pall &lt; 0.05). By contrast, other brain metabolites and plasma BDNF levels were not altered. The findings demonstrate convergent changes in distinct markers of glutamatergic signaling across prolonged wakefulness and recovery sleep in humans. They warrant further studies to elucidate the underlying mechanisms that link the homeostatic regulation of sleep and glutamatergic system activity in health and disease