What can be done to improve higher education quality and graduate employability in Nigeria? A stakeholder approach

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it identifies the extent to which Nigerian higher education institutions (HEIs) enable the development of graduate skills and employability. Second, it outlines the roles of the major stakeholders in higher education and suggests ways to improve graduates’ knowledge, employability and skills. The study is based on a qualitative design incorporating interviews with representatives of public and private organizations, education agencies and members of non-governmental organizations in Nigeria. The data were analysed thematically to ascertain the perceptions of key stakeholders. The findings reveal that there is a minimal collaboration between HEIs and industry and many HEIs in Nigeria lack the necessary pedagogy, funding and infrastructure to carry out the teaching of employability skills. Several practical and policy implications arise from the study regarding improving graduate employability in Nigeria – in particular, the need to create a culture and environment that are conducive to HEI–industry–government collaboration and the need to design the curriculum to enable the teaching of employability skills

Culling-Induced Changes in Badger (Meles meles) Behaviour, Social Organisation and the Epidemiology of Bovine Tuberculosis

In the UK, attempts since the 1970s to control the incidence of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle by culling a wildlife host, the European badger (Meles meles), have produced equivocal results. Culling-induced social perturbation of badger populations may lead to unexpected outcomes. We test predictions from the ‘perturbation hypothesis’, determining the impact of culling operations on badger populations, movement of surviving individuals and the influence on the epidemiology of bTB in badgers using data dervied from two study areas within the UK Government's Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT). Culling operations did not remove all individuals from setts, with between 34–43% of badgers removed from targeted social groups. After culling, bTB prevalence increased in badger social groups neighbouring removals, particularly amongst cubs. Seventy individual adult badgers were fitted with radio-collars, yielding 8,311 locational fixes from both sites between November 2001 and December 2003. Home range areas of animals surviving within removed groups increased by 43.5% in response to culling. Overlap between summer ranges of individuals from Neighbouring social groups in the treatment population increased by 73.3% in response to culling. The movement rate of individuals between social groups was low, but increased after culling, in Removed and Neighbouring social groups. Increased bTB prevalence in Neighbouring groups was associated with badger movements both into and out of these groups, although none of the moving individuals themselves tested positive for bTB. Significant increases in both the frequency of individual badger movements between groups and the emergence of bTB were observed in response to culling. However, no direct evidence was found to link the two phenomena. We hypothesise that the social disruption caused by culling may not only increase direct contact and thus disease transmission between surviving badgers, but may also increase social stress within the surviving population, causing immunosuppression and enhancing the expression of disease

Characterization of regulatory T cells in obese omental adipose tissue in humans

Obesity-associated visceral adipose tissue (AT) inflammation promotes insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2D). In mice, lean visceral AT is populated with anti-inflammatory cells, notably regulatory T cells (Tregs) expressing the IL-33 receptor ST2. Conversely, obese AT contains fewer Tregs and more pro-inflammatory cells. In humans, however, there is limited evidence for a similar pattern of obesity-associated immunomodulation. We used flow cytometry and mRNA quantification to characterize human omental AT in 29 obese, 18 of whom had T2D. Patients with T2D had increased proportions of inflammatory cells, including M1 macrophages, with positive correlations to body mass index. In contrast, Treg frequencies negatively correlated to BMI but were comparable between T2D and non-T2D individuals. Compared to human thymic Tregs, omental AT Tregs expressed similar levels of FOXP3, CD25, IKZF2, and CTLA4, but higher levels of PPARG, CCR4, PRDM1, and CXCL2. ST2, however was not detectable on omental AT Tregs from lean or obese subjects. This is the first comprehensive investigation into how omental AT immunity changes with obesity and T2D in humans, revealing important similarities and differences to paradigms in mice. These data increase our understanding of how pathways of immune regulation could be targeted to ameliorate AT inflammation in humans

Thigh-length compression stockings and DVT after stroke

Controversy exists as to whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in patients with invasive bladder cancer, despite randomised controlled trials of more than 3000 patients. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of such treatment on survival in patients with this disease

Teaching and learning population and preventive health: Challenges for modern medical curricula

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to formally identify medical students' attitudes towards population and preventive health issues addressed in the University of Queensland's Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme, in response to informal student reports that population and preventive health issues were largely just matters of 'common sense'