Children’s Online Behaviour and Safety Policy and Rights Challenges

This book explores the use of technology in young people’s social lives against a backdrop of “online safety measures” put in place by the UK government to ensure safe and risk free engagement with online services

Biases, concerns and the erosion of rights: Addressing digital issues with adopted and fostered children in a policy vacuum

Online harms and the resultant safeguarding approaches are a key challenge for those working in the children’s workforce. However, safety narratives and a wish to prevent harm, rather than mitigate risk, have arguably caused a safeguarding environment that is neither mindful of children’s rights nor in their best interests. When supporting adopted and looked after children, there are some specific challenges that can result in further caution in supporting children in their use of digital technology. Empirical data presents observations on a professional environment where, with a dearth of training or policy direction, professionals are left to bring their own biases and beliefs into safeguarding judgements and, in the rush to protect, often forget the importance of working across stakeholders rather than trying to resolve issues independently

Online safeguarding and personal cyber skills for students

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven universities to deliver education online, making use of digital platforms for both formal and informal learning. This move has accelerated concerns regarding institutions' capabilities to protect students from online abuse and support those who fall victim to its many forms. Empirical data drawn from UK universities prior to the pandemic highlight the lack of policy and practice across the university sector around both awareness of, and support from, online abuse among the student body. Further concerns during the pandemic, which highlight failures not just of safeguarding policy, but cybersecurity practice, demonstrate the need for universities to not only recognise their duty of care regarding student welfare but also to provide training and education for all, making use of online and hybrid higher education

Cranberry and Grape Seed Extracts Inhibit the Proliferative Phenotype of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas

Proanthocyanidins, compounds highly concentrated in dietary fruits, such as cranberries and grapes, demonstrate significant cancer prevention potential against many types of cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate cranberry and grape seed extracts to quantitate and compare their anti-proliferative effects on the most common type of oral cancer, oral squamous cell carcinoma. Using two well-characterized oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines, CAL27 and SCC25, assays were performed to evaluate the effects of cranberry and grape seed extract on phenotypic behaviors of these oral cancers. The proliferation of both oral cancer cell lines was significantly inhibited by the administration of cranberry and grape seed extracts, in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, key regulators of apoptosis, caspase-2 and caspase-8, were concomitantly up-regulated by these treatments. However, cranberry and grape seed extracts elicited differential effects on cell adhesion, cell morphology, and cell cycle regulatory pathways. This study represents one of the first comparative investigations of cranberry and grape seed extracts and their anti-proliferative effects on oral cancers. Previous findings using purified proanthocyanidin from grape seed extract demonstrated more prominent growth inhibition, as well as apoptosis-inducing, properties on CAL27 cells. These observations provide evidence that cranberry and grape seed extracts not only inhibit oral cancer proliferation but also that the mechanism of this inhibition may function by triggering key apoptotic regulators in these cell lines. This information will be of benefit to researchers interested in elucidating which dietary components are central to mechanisms involved in the mediation of oral carcinogenesis and progression

The Effect of Manual Therapy on Muscle Stiffness in Healthy Individuals

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the immediate and delayed changes in muscle stiffness (in a resting and contracted state) related to DN of the gastrocnemius compared to a sham DN condition. To further investigate this relationship, we investigated these changes at the site of the TP, as well as at a standard site (medial head of the gastrocnemius). We hypothesize that gastrocnemius DN reduces muscle stiffness in individuals with TP

Molecular tools enabling pennycress (\u3ci\u3eThlaspi arvense\u3c/i\u3e) as a model plant and oilseed cash cover crop

Thlapsi arvense L. (pennycress) is being developed as a profitable oilseed cover crop for the winter fallow period throughout the temperate regions of the world, controlling soil erosion and nutrients run-off on otherwise barren farmland. We demonstrate that pennycress can serve as a user-friendly model system akin to Arabidopsis that is well-suited for both laboratory and field experimentation. We sequenced the diploid genome of the spring-type Spring 32-10 inbred line (1C DNA content of 539 Mb; 2n = 14), identifying variation that may explain phenotypic differences with winter-type pennycress, as well as predominantly a one-to-one correspondence with Arabidopsis genes, which makes translational research straightforward. We developed an Agrobacterium-mediated floral dip transformation method (0.5% transformation efficiency) and introduced CRISPR-Cas9 constructs to produce indel mutations in the putative FATTY ACID ELONGATION1 (FAE1) gene, thereby abolishing erucic acid production and creating an edible seed oil comparable to that of canola. We also stably transformed pennycress with the Euonymus alatus diacylglycerol acetyltransferase (EaDAcT) gene, producing low-viscosity acetyltriacylglycerol- containing seed oil suitable as a diesel-engine drop-in fuel. Adoption of pennycress as a model system will accelerate oilseed-crop translational research and facilitate pennycress’ rapid domestication to meet the growing sustainable food and fuel demands