The Power of Collegiality in School-Based Professional Development

The school has increasingly become the focus for teacher professional development and school leaders are maximizing teacher learning through restructuring time and meeting structures to create additional opportunities for collegial work within the school day. This research paper is the second part of a three stage research design investigating South Australian teachers’ experiences of school-based professional development and how this relates to emerging trends. This second stage of research focuses on professional development and professional growth, by interviewing fifteen staff in three case study schools to obtain greater detail about the implementation of quality teacher learning strategies. This paper reports some of the findings from the interviews concerning school-based professional development in relation to previous Professional Development research. Using case studies, key issues identified in this report include creating time, teams and the role of leadership, thereby highlighting the power of collegial teacher learning

A generalisation of Amitsur's A-polynomials

summary:We find examples of polynomials $f\in D[t;\sigma ,\delta ]$ whose eigenring $\mathcal {E}(f)$ is a central simple algebra over the field $F = C \cap \mathrm {Fix}(\sigma ) \cap \mathrm {Const}(\delta )$

The eigenspaces of twisted polynomials over cyclic field extensions

Let $K$ be a field and $\sigma$ an automorphism of $K$ of order $n$. We study the eigenspace of a bounded skew polynomial $f\in K[t;\sigma]$, with emphasis on the case of a cyclic field extension $K/F$ of degree $n$, where $\sigma$ generates the Galois group. We obtain lower bounds on its dimension, and compute it in special cases.Comment: Rewritten and streamlined new version, some results are improve

The Organic Retail Market in Wales

This report on retail data provides an estimate of the value of the organic market in Wales and its borders, which shows the importance of this sector to the Welsh economy both directly and as a multiplier of the Welsh Government’s investment in organic farming under the Rural Development Plan (RDP) agri-environment schemes. The report combines data from three sources: Nielsen Scantrack which covers sales through ma-jor food and drink retailers (supermarkets) in Wales/West, surveys of Welsh organic businesses (independent retailers, processors, box schemes, farm shops and others) carried out by the Soil Association and data from the Welsh producer survey carried out by Organic Centre Wales. In addition, comments were invited from a number of industry experts

Scaffolding patient counselling skills in Australian university pharmacy programs.

This paper presents the results of an appraisal of the extent of, and approaches to, scaffolding for development of counseling skills of pharmacy students across Australian universities. There were two stages in the work. The first involved mapping of university pharmacy program and examination of placement handbooks from all but two of the fourteen universities offering pharmacy programs in Australia. The second involved a series of consultations and interviews with key representatives of various pharmacy stakeholder groups and individuals at a national level and in each state and territory of Australia. University academics and preceptors described significant roles in supporting students to build these skills especially within the pre-placement and during placement phases. Across Australian pharmacy schools, scaffolding for development of counseling skills through a range of approaches is evident. There appears to be support for this approach from both students and preceptors. The results of this research will have relevance both for other health professional programs and other programs which include experiential workplace learning with respect to the preparation of students for workplace activities

Collaborative development of an online pharmacy experiential learning database

Academics preparing students for experiential placements within professional programs require considerable curriculum planning and pedagogical expertise. Communities of practice involving workshops and online processes provide opportunities for collaborative work in developing quality curriculum materials and also in supporting widespread dissemination. The aim of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council funded project was to collaboratively establish an online repository of tasks and other associated resources. These tasks were intended for potential inclusion in the suite of activities that could be required to be completed in a pharmacy experiential clinical placement. An educational template and website were initially created, with over 90 academics and other industry partners subsequently attending a series of workshops to share ideas and develop the online materials. Online surveys regarding the tasks, written feedback concerning workshop processes and interviews were conducted as part of the ongoing evaluation processes to ascertain the effectiveness of the tasks and processes and to inform future directions. Workshops and follow up processes resulted in publication of twenty eight tasks, positive responses to the materials and to the collaborative processes

Nurturing a cross-institutional curriculum planning community of practice

This paper focuses on academic skill-building through using cross-institutional collaborative approaches in developing quality learning and assessment tasks for experiential placements. A curriculum planning template was used for the collaborative work, with materials developed being disseminated on a specially designed online repository website. Results, analyzed within a community of practice framework, indicate the activities. There is potential evident for building a more mature community of practice given the value of the collaborative learning process involved. This would need additional opportunities and leadership over an extended timeline. Some longer term changes in curriculum planning and impacts on wider networks are also evident. This case study provides a model which is relevant across all disciplines and which highlights professional learning occurring through collaborative academic work focused on relevant practice

RNA polymerase II promotes the organization of chromatin following DNA replication

Understanding how chromatin organisation is duplicated on the two daughter strands is a central question in epigenetics. In mammals, following the passage of the replisome, nucleosomes lose their defined positioning and transcription contributes to their re-organisation. However, whether transcription plays a greater role in the organization of chromatin following DNA replication remains unclear. Here we analysed protein re-association with newly replicated DNA upon inhibition of transcription using iPOND coupled to quantitative mass spectrometry. We show that nucleosome assembly and the re-establishment of most histone modifications are uncoupled from transcription. However, RNAPII acts to promote the re-association of hundreds of proteins with newly replicated chromatin via pathways that are not observed in steady-state chromatin. These include ATP-dependent remodellers, transcription factors and histone methyltransferases. We also identify a set of DNA repair factors that may handle transcription-replication conflicts during normal transcription in human non-transformed cells. Our study reveals that transcription plays a greater role in the organization of chromatin post-replication than previously anticipated.</p

Determination of in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility for Lefamulin (Pleuromutilin) for Ureaplasma Spp. and Mycoplasma hominis

Lefamulin is the first of the pleuromutilin class of antimicrobials to be available for therapeutic use in humans. Minimum inhibitory concentrations of lefamulin were determined by microbroth dilution for 90 characterised clinical isolates (25 Ureaplasma parvum, 25 Ureaplasma urealyticum, and 40 Mycoplasma hominis). All Mycoplasma hominis isolates possessed lefamulin MICs of ≤0.25 mg/L after 48 h (MIC50/90 of 0.06/0.12 mg/L), despite an inherent resistance to macrolides; while Ureaplasma isolates had MICs of ≤2 mg/L after 24 h (MIC50/90 of 0.25/1 mg/L), despite inherent resistance to clindamycin. Two U. urealyticum isolates with additional A2058G mutations of 23S rRNA, and one U. parvum isolate with a R66Q67 deletion (all of which had a combined resistance to macrolides and clindamycin) only showed a 2-fold increase in lefamulin MIC (1–2 mg/L) relative to macrolide-susceptible strains. Lefamulin could be an effective alternative antimicrobial for treating Ureaplasma spp. and Mycoplasma hominis infections irrespective of intrinsic or acquired resistance to macrolides, lincosamides, and ketolides. Based on this potent in vitro activity and the known good, rapid, and homogenous tissue penetration of female and male urogenital tissues and glands, further exploration of clinical efficacy of lefamulin for the treatment of Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma urogenital infections is warranted