Designing a teacher orientation course for English as a foreign language faculty at Saudi Arabian universities: the case of a private university in Riyadh

This study took place at an English language Centre (Foundation Institute at a university) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to address the problem of English instructors’ attrition. After studying the related literature, that connects the faculty attrition to the implementation of a purpose-made faculty professional development programmes, it was evident that popular TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) courses that instructors had attended prior to their joining the university were unable to answer this problem. The purpose of the present research is to interrogate the top-down model of educational expertise and to improve educational provision in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher education. A mixed methods approach was conducted to research the topic and relevant instruments were designed. After careful local stakeholders’ mapping, students who joined the Foundation, students who finished the English programme at the Foundation, and English instructors at the Foundation were selected. A 93 Likert-scale items questionnaire was distributed to 170 students who joined the Foundation Programme, and a series of interviews were conducted with 24 students who finished the English programme and 9 EFL (English as a Foreign Language) instructors. After collecting the data, these were analysed using descriptive statistics for the quantitative data and grounded theory to find the major themes in the interviews. The major findings from the quantitative data reveal that Saudi students of English are motivated to learn English, despite their poor English language learning experiences during basic education; while the qualitative data suggest that EFL students are low language learning strategies users. Finally, the findings show that the EFL instructors are not aware of either the Saudi Arabian educational context, or the Saudi culture before arriving in the Saudi Kingdom, and they would welcome an induction before they join the Foundation Centre. The data from the three research instruments were used to inform the design of a unique of its kind bottom-up orientation course, based on the specific sociocultural context that prepares newly-employed EFL instructors more efficiently for dealing with Saudi students, informing them about effective teaching English methods and materials development, and dealing with administrative issues

Neuropharmacogenetics of Major Depression: Has the Time Come to Take both Sexes into Account?

Pollution & threats to the environmen

Citalopram-mediated anxiolysis and differing neurobiological responses in both sexes of a genetic model of depression

Disorders such as depression and anxiety exhibit strong sex differences in their prevalence and incidence, with women also differing from men in their response to antidepressants. Furthermore, receptors for corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRHR1) and arginine vasopressin receptor subtype 1b (AVPR1b) are known to contribute to the regulation of mood and anxiety. In the present study, we compared the anxiety profile and CRHR1 and AVPR1b expression levels in control Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats and rats of the SD-derived Flinders Sensitive Line (FSL), a genetic model of depression. Additionally, given the apparent sex differences in the therapeutic efficacy of antidepressants and because antidepressants are commonly used to treat comorbid anxiety and depressive symptoms, we assessed whether the anxiolytic effects of an antidepressant occur in a sex-dependent manner. Male and female FSL rats were treated with citalopram 10 mg/kg once daily for 14 days and were then tested in the open field and the elevated plus maze paradigms. Upon completion of the behavioural analysis, AVPR1b and CRHR1 expression levels were monitored in the hypothalamus and the prefrontal cortex (PFC) using Western blotting. According to our results, male FSL rats were more anxious than control SD rats, a difference abolished by citalopram treatment. Baseline anxiety levels were similar in female FSL and SD rats, and citalopram further reduced anxiety in female FSL rats. Importantly, whereas citalopram altered AVPR1b expression in the hypothalamus of male FSL rats, its actions on this parameter were restricted to the PFC in female FSL rats. In both sexes of FSL rats, citalopram did not alter CRHR1 expression in either the hypothalamus or PFC. Our results demonstrate that antidepressant treatment reduces anxiety levels in FSL rats of both sexes: the magnitude of treatment effect was related to the starting baseline level of anxiety and the antidepressant elicited sexually differentiated neurobiological responses in specific brain regions.This research was partly supported through a German-Greek Academic Exchange Programme (DAAD-IKYDA: D/04/42259), an IBRO studentship to N.K., and a Max Planck Society fellowship to I.S

Forced swim test induces divergent global transcriptomic alterations in the hippocampus of high versus low novelty-seeker rats

BACKGROUND: Many neuropsychiatric disorders, including stress-related mood disorders, are complex multi-parametric syndromes. Susceptibility to stress and depression is individually different. The best animal model of individual differences that can be used to study the neurobiology of affect regards spontaneous reactions to novelty. Experimentally, when naive rats are exposed to the stress of a novel environment, they display a highly variable exploratory activity and are classified as high or low responders (HR or LR, respectively). Importantly, HR and LR rats do not seem to exhibit a substantial differentiation in relation to their ‘depressive-like’ status in the forced swim test (FST), a widely used animal model of ‘behavioral despair’. In the present study, we investigated whether FST exposure would be accompanied by phenotype-dependent differences in hippocampal gene expression in HR and LR rats. RESULTS: HR and LR rats present a distinct behavioral pattern in the pre-test session but develop comparable depressive-like status in the second FST session. At 24 h following the second FST session, HR and LR rats (stressed and unstressed controls) were sacrificed and hippocampal samples were independently analyzed on whole rat genome Illumina arrays. Functional analysis into pathways and networks was performed using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) software. Notably, hippocampal gene expression signatures between HR and LR rats were markedly divergent, despite their comparable depressive-like status in the FST. These molecular differences are reflected in both the extent of transcriptional remodeling (number of significantly changed genes) and the types of molecular pathways affected following FST exposure. A markedly higher number of genes (i.e., 2.28-fold) were statistically significantly changed following FST in LR rats, as compared to their HR counterparts. Notably, genes associated with neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity were induced in the hippocampus of LR rats in response to FST, whereas in HR rats, FST induced pathways directly or indirectly associated with induction of apoptotic mechanisms. CONCLUSIONS: The markedly divergent gene expression signatures exposed herein support the notion that the hippocampus of HR and LR rats undergoes distinct transcriptional remodeling in response to the same stress regimen, thus yielding a different FST-related ‘endophenotype’, despite the seemingly similar depressive-like phenotype

Neuroplasticity-related correlates of environmental enrichment combined with physical activity differ between the sexes

In Press, Corrected ProofEnvironmental enrichment (EE), comprising positive physical (exercise) and cognitive stimuli, influences neuronal structure and usually improves brain function. The promise of EE as a preventative strategy against neuropsychiatric disease is especially high during early postnatal development when the brain is still amenable to reorganization. Despite the fact that male and female brains differ in terms of connectivity and function that may reflect early life experiences, knowledge of the neural substrates and mechanisms by which such changes arise remains limited. This study compared the impact of EE combined with physical activity on neuroplasticity and its functional consequences in adult male and female rats; EE was provided during the first 3 months of life and our analysis focused on the hippocampus, an area implicated in cognitive behavior as well as the neuroendocrine response to stress. Both male and female rats reared in EE displayed better object recognition memory than their control counterparts. Interestingly, sex differences were revealed in the effects of EE on time spent exploring the objects during this test. Independently of sex, EE increased hippocampal turnover rates of dopamine and serotonin and reduced expression of 5-HT1A receptors; in addition, EE upregulated expression of synaptophysin, a presynaptic protein, in the hippocampus. As compared to their respective controls, EE-exposed males exhibited parallel increases in phosphorylated Tau and the GluN2B receptor, whereas females responded to EE with reduced hippocampal levels of glutamate and GluN2B. Together, these observations provide further evidence on the differential effects of EE on markers of hippocampal neuroplasticity in males and females.This work was funded by an ``Education and Lifelong Learning, Supporting Postdoctoral Researchers”, co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greece. This work was also supported by the Portuguese North Regional Operational Program (ON.2) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN), through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), the Project Estratégico co-funded by FCT (PEst-C/SAU/LA0026/2013) and the European Regional Development Fund COMPETE (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-037,298) as well as the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000,013, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Identification of slit3 as a locus affecting nicotine preference in zebrafish and human smoking behaviour

To facilitate smoking genetics research we determined whether a screen of mutagenized zebrafish for nicotine preference could predict loci affecting smoking behaviour. From 30 screened F-3 sibling groups, where each was derived from an individual ethyl-nitrosurea mutagenized F-0 fish, two showed increased or decreased nicotine preference. Out of 25 inactivating mutations carried by the F-3 fish, one in the slit3 gene segregated with increased nicotine preference in heterozygous individuals. Focussed SNP analysis of the human SLIT3 locus in cohorts from UK (n=863) and Finland (n=1715) identified two variants associated with cigarette consumption and likelihood of cessation. Characterisation of slit3 mutant larvae and adult fish revealed decreased sensitivity to the dopaminergic and serotonergic antagonist amisulpride, known to affect startle reflex that is correlated with addiction in humans, and increased htr1aa mRNA expression in mutant larvae. No effect on neuronal pathfinding was detected. These findings reveal a role for SLIT3 in development of pathways affecting responses to nicotine in zebrafish and smoking in humans.Peer reviewe

The nucleus reuniens: a key node in the neurocircuitry of stress and depression

Uncorrected proofThe hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC) are connected in a reciprocal manner: whereas the hippocampus projects directly to the PFC, a polysynaptic pathway that passes through the nucleus reuniens (RE) of the thalamus relays inputs from the PFC to the hippocampus. The present study demonstrates that lesioning and/or inactivation of the RE reduces coherence in the PFC-hippocampal pathway, provokes an antidepressant-like behavioral response in the forced swim test and prevents, but does not ameliorate, anhedonia in the chronic mild stress (CMS) model of depression. Additionally, RE lesioning before CMS abrogates the well-known neuromorphological and endocrine correlates of CMS. In summary, this work highlights the importance of the reciprocal connectivity between the hippocampus and PFC in the establishment of stress-induced brain pathology and suggests a role for the RE in promoting resilience to depressive illness.Greece for providing sertraline. This work was supported by an ‘Education and Lifelong Learning, Supporting Postdoctoral Researchers’, co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greece, the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute (ICVS), ON.2—O NOVO NORTE—North Portugal Regional Operational Program 2007/2013 of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) 2007/2013 through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT; grant no. NMC-113934) and an InEurope program funded by International Brain Research Organizationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Neuroscientific Insights into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

This presentation addresses a discipline-specific integrative discussion of important DEI issues in our upper-level Neuroscience course (BIO415) required by all the students enrolled in the neuroscience minor program

2019: Pothitos Pitychoutis, Milestone Book Selection

Promotion to the rank of Associate Professor, Department of Biologyhttps://ecommons.udayton.edu/svc_milestone/1032/thumbnail.jp