Transcriptomic Complexity of Aspergillus terreus Velvet Gene Family under the Influence of Butyrolactone I

Filamentous fungi of the Ascomycota phylum are known to contain a family of conserved conidiation regulating proteins with distinctive velvet domains. In Aspergilli, this velvet family includes four proteins, VeA, VelB, VelC and VosA, and is involved in conidiation and secondary metabolism along with a global regulator LaeA. In A. terreus, the overexpression of LaeA has been observed to increase the biogenesis of the harmaceutically-important secondary metabolite, lovastatin, while the role of the velvet family has not been studied. The secondary metabolism and conidiation of A. terreus have also been observed to be increased by butyrolactone I in a quorum-sensing manner. An enlightenment of the interplay of these regulators will give potential advancement to the industrial use of this fungus, as well as in resolving the pathogenic features. In this study, the Aspergillus terreus MUCL 38669 transcriptome was strand-specifically sequenced to enable an in-depth gene expression analysis to further investigate the transcriptional role of butyrolactone I in these processes. The sequenced transcriptome revealed intriguing properties of the velvet family transcripts, including the regulator laeA, and uncovered the velC gene in A. terreus. The reliability refining microarray gene expression analysis disclosed a positive regulatory role for butyrolactone I in laeA expression, as well as an influence on the expression of the canonical conidiation-regulating genes under submerged culture. All of this supports the suggested regulative role of butyrolactone I in A. terreus secondary metabolism, as well as conidiation

Rhetorical-Performative Analysis of the Urban Symbolic Landscape : Populism in Action

This chapter introduces a rhetorical-performative analysis as a tool for exploring urban symbolic landscape and populism and hence deals with relationality and materiality from the postfoundational perspective. It connects the articulation theory of cultural theorists Stuart Hall or political theorists Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and spatial analysis of cultural geographer Doreen Massey to the study of populism. The case of Hungary shows how political frontiers have been articulated in the public space, contestable interpretations of the past are deliberately used and key symbolic urban landscapes transformed radically to articulate a political ‘us’—and ‘them.’ In the 2010s, in the Hungarian capital Budapest, the top-down process transforming urban space faced bottom-up movements which reproduce the populist logic of articulation.Peer reviewe

A portable methane sampling system for radiocarbon-based bioportion measurements and environmental CH4 sourcing studies

Radiocarbon measurements can be used to deduce the proportion of renewable to fossil carbon in materials. While these biofraction measurements are performed routinely on solid and liquid substances, measurements of gaseous samples, such as methane, are still scarce. As a pioneering effort, we have developed a field-capable sampling system for the selective capture of CH4 for radiocarbon-concentration measurements. The system allows for biofraction measurements of methane by accelerator mass spectrometry. In environmental research, radiocarbon measurements of methane can be used for fingerprinting different sources of methane emissions. In metrology and industry, biofraction measurements can be utilized to characterize biogas/natural gas mixtures within gas-line networks. In this work, the portable sampling system is described in detail and reference measurements of biofractions of gaseous fuel samples are presented. Low-concentration (1-ppm-CH4) sampling for environmental applications appears feasible but has not been fully tested at present. This development allows for multitude of future applications ranging from Arctic methane emissions to biogas insertion to gas networks. Published by AIP Publishing.Peer reviewe

Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Black Carbon Deposition to Dated Fennoscandian Arctic Lake Sediments from 1830 to 2010

Peer reviewe

Implementing virtual collaborative inquiry practises in a middle-school context

The aim of the present study was to investigate the challenges that relate to the implementation of virtual inquiry practises in middle school. The case was a school course in which a group of Finnish students (N = 14) and teachers (N = 7) completed group inquiries through virtual collaboration, using a web-based learning environment. The task was to accomplish a cross-disciplinary inquiry into cultural issues. The students worked mainly at home and took much responsibility for their course achievements. The investigators analysed the pedagogical design of the course and the content of the participants' interaction patterns in the web-based environment, using qualitative content analysis and social network analysis. The findings suggest that the students succeeded in producing distinctive cultural products, and both the students and the teachers adopted novel roles during the inquiry. The web-based learning environment was used more as a coordination tool for organizing the collaborative work than as a forum for epistemic inquiry. The tension between the school curriculum and the inquiry practises was manifest in the participants' discussions of the assessment criteria of the course.The aim of the present study was to investigate the challenges that relate to the implementation of virtual inquiry practises in middle school. The case was a school course in which a group of Finnish students (N = 14) and teachers (N = 7) completed group inquiries through virtual collaboration, using a web-based learning environment. The task was to accomplish a cross-disciplinary inquiry into cultural issues. The students worked mainly at home and took much responsibility for their course achievements. The investigators analysed the pedagogical design of the course and the content of the participants' interaction patterns in the web-based environment, using qualitative content analysis and social network analysis. The findings suggest that the students succeeded in producing distinctive cultural products, and both the students and the teachers adopted novel roles during the inquiry. The web-based learning environment was used more as a coordination tool for organizing the collaborative work than as a forum for epistemic inquiry. The tension between the school curriculum and the inquiry practises was manifest in the participants' discussions of the assessment criteria of the course.The aim of the present study was to investigate the challenges that relate to the implementation of virtual inquiry practises in middle school. The case was a school course in which a group of Finnish students (N = 14) and teachers (N = 7) completed group inquiries through virtual collaboration, using a web-based learning environment. The task was to accomplish a cross-disciplinary inquiry into cultural issues. The students worked mainly at home and took much responsibility for their course achievements. The investigators analysed the pedagogical design of the course and the content of the participants' interaction patterns in the web-based environment, using qualitative content analysis and social network analysis. The findings suggest that the students succeeded in producing distinctive cultural products, and both the students and the teachers adopted novel roles during the inquiry. The web-based learning environment was used more as a coordination tool for organizing the collaborative work than as a forum for epistemic inquiry. The tension between the school curriculum and the inquiry practises was manifest in the participants' discussions of the assessment criteria of the course.Peer reviewe

Situating Speech: A Rhetorical Approach to Political Strategy

Ideas are increasingly acknowledged as factors in explaining political behaviour. But often they are treated as inert resources rather than dynamic instances of action in themselves. The latter, I propose, requires reflection on the character of speech – as the medium of ideas – in responding to and refiguring a prevailing situation. I undertake such reflection by setting out a rhetorical approach to political strategy. Building upon ‘interpretive’ advances in political science I shift the focus from stable cognitive frames to the dynamics of argumentation where ideas work expressively. I then explore the rhetorical aspect of strategising with attention to the way speech serves to orient audiences by creatively re-appropriating a situation. That approach is shown to be consistent with a ‘dialectical’ political sociology that emphasises the interaction of structure and agency. Finally, I sketch a method for undertaking rhetorical analysis and indicate how it might be applied to a concrete example

The governors of school markets? : Local education authorities, school choice and equity in Finland and Sweden

As one of the key elements of the Nordic welfare model, education systems are based on the idea of providing equal educational opportunities, regardless of gender, social class and geographic origin. Since the 1990s, Nordic welfare states have undergone a gradual but wide-ranging transformation towards a more market-based mode of public service delivery. Along this trajectory, the advent of school choice policy and the growing variation in the between-school achievement results have diversified the previously homogenous Nordic education systems. The aim of our paper is to analyse how Finnish and Swedish local education authorities comprehend and respond to the intertwinement of the market logic of school choice and the ideology of equality. The data consist of two sets of in-depth thematic interviews with staff from the local providers of education, municipal education authorities. The analysis discloses the ways in which national legislation has authorized municipal authorities to govern the provision of education.Peer reviewe

'Support our networking and help us belong!': listening to beginning secondary school science teachers

This study, drawing on the voice of beginning teachers, seeks to illuminate their experiences of building professional relationships as they become part of the teaching profession. A networking perspective was taken to expose and explore the use of others during the first three years of a teacher’s workplace experience. Three case studies, set within a wider sample of 11 secondary school science teachers leaving one UK university’s PostGraduate Certificate in Education, were studied. The project set out to determine the nature of the networks used by teachers in terms of both how they were being used for their own professional development and perceptions of how they were being used by others in school. Affordances and barriers to networking were explored using notions of identity formation through social participation. The focus of the paper is on how the teachers used others to help shape their sense of belonging to this, their new workplace. The paper develops ideas from network theories to argue that membership of the communities are a subset of the professional inter‐relationships teachers utilise for their professional development. During their first year of teaching, eight teachers were interviewed, completing 13 semi‐structured interviews. This was supplemented in Year 2 by a questionnaire survey of their experiences. In the third year of the programme, 11 teachers (including the original sample of eight) were surveyed using a network mapping tool in which they represented their communications with people, groups and resources. Finally, three of the teachers (common to both samples) were then interviewed specifically about their networking practices and experiences using the generation of their network map as a stimulated recall focus. The implications of the analysis of these accounts are that these beginning teachers did not perceive of themselves wholly as novices and that their personal aspirations to increase participation in practical science, develop a career or work for pupils holistically did not always sit comfortably with the school communities into which they were being accommodated. While highlighting the importance of trust and respect in establishing relationships, these teachers’ accounts highlight the importance of finding ‘peers’ from whom they can find support and with whom they can reflect and potentially collaborate towards developing practice. They also raise questions about who these ‘peers’ might be and where they might be found

To what degree have the non-police public services adopted the National Intelligence Model? : what benefits could the National Intelligence Model deliver?

It is claimed that the National Intelligence Model (NIM) consolidated intelligence-led policing principles in investigative practice and decision making in British policing. Subsequently, encouraged by the Home Office, the NIM was adopted by a number of other public services with an investigative capability. However, that transfer took place without a sufficiently rigorous evaluation of the model’s value to the police service and without any meaningful analysis of its relevance to the investigative functions of other public sector agencies. This research examined the adoption of the NIM by three public sector bodies: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) and the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). It drew on archival materials, associated literature and the analysis of semi-structured interviews with the personnel of these and associated agencies. Research respondents also assessed a simplified version of the NIM that was designed to remove many of the original model’s inconsistencies and ambiguities. The research identified that the reviewed public services are not compliant with the NIM minimum standards and that the model has not delivered any meaningful improvement in the consistency of process, investigative efficiency, improved partnership working, or in fraud reduction in those agencies. The NIM failed because of perceived complexity, the language of the model and supplementary guidance; its exclusive ‘fit’ with the police; and a suspicion by the agencies’ personnel that its adoption was intended as a performance management and governance tool. Moreover, the revised version of the NIM’s minimum standards did not improve comprehension or conformity, or resolve the model’s perceived police bias. It was concluded that the model is not fit for purpose for the agencies studied and that an alternative model that is more finely tuned to the needs of those agencies is required.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Does delayed measurement affect patient reports of provider performance? Implications for performance measurement of medical assistance with tobacco cessation: A Dental PBRN study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background:</p> <p>We compared two methods of measuring provider performance of tobacco control activities: immediate "exit cards" versus delayed telephone follow-up surveys. Current standards, e.g. HEDIS, use delayed patient measures that may over or under-estimate overall performance.</p> <p>Methods:</p> <p>Patients completed exit cards in 60 dental practices immediately after a visit to measure whether the provider "asked" about tobacco use, and "advised" the patient to quit. One to six months later patients were asked the same questions by telephone survey. Using the exit cards as the standard, we quantified performance and calculated sensitivity (agreement of those responding yes on telephone surveys compared with exit cards) and specificity (agreement of those responding no) of the delayed measurement.</p> <p>Results:</p> <p>Among 150 patients, 21% reporting being asked about tobacco use on the exit cards and 30% reporting being asked in the delayed surveys. The sensitivity and specificity were 50% and 75%, respectively. Similarly, among 182 tobacco users, 38% reported being advised to quit on the exit cards and this increased to 51% on the delayed surveys. The sensitivity and specificity were 75% and 64%, respectively. Increasing the delay from the visit to the telephone survey resulted in increasing disagreement.</p> <p>Conclusion:</p> <p>Patient reports differed considerably in immediate versus delayed measures. These results have important implications because they suggest that our delayed measures may over-estimate performance. The immediate exit cards should be included in the armamentarium of tools for measuring providers' performance of tobacco control, and perhaps other service delivery.</p