Changes made to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Third Edition by Psychologists working in Child Services

Psychologists were found to amend the way they used the WISC-III, by either regularly missing out sub-tests or not following the standardised manual instructions. The majority felt these changes would impact on the test scores of the individual child

The impact of training on teacher knowledge about children with an intellectual disability

The present study examines the impact of a short training session on the knowledge of teaching staff in Scotland about children with an intellectual disability. Despite the majority of participants reporting that they had a child with an intellectual disability in their classroom, the initial level of knowledge concerning intellectual disability was low. This was partly considered to be due to terminology differences that exist between the health and education sectors and a lack of training specific to the needs of children with an intellectual disability. Training was shown to significantly improve the basic knowledge needed to understand intellectual disability immediately after training and at a 1 month follow-up, suggesting that the knowledge gains would be sustained in the longer term

Structural determinants of the outer shell of β-carboxysomes in synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942: roles for CcmK2, K3-K4, CcmO, and CcmL

Cyanobacterial CO(2)-fixation is supported by a CO(2)-concentrating mechanism which improves photosynthesis by saturating the primary carboxylating enzyme, ribulose 1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO), with its preferred substrate CO(2). The site of CO(2)-concentration is a protein bound micro-compartment called the carboxysome which contains most, if not all, of the cellular RuBisCO. The shell of β-type carboxysomes is thought to be composed of two functional layers, with the inner layer involved in RuBisCO scaffolding and bicarbonate dehydration, and the outer layer in selective permeability to dissolved solutes. Here, four genes (ccmK2-4, ccmO), whose products were predicted to function in the outer shell layer of β-carboxysomes from Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942, were investigated by analysis of defined genetic mutants. Deletion of the ccmK2 and ccmO genes resulted in severe high-CO(2)-requiring mutants with aberrant carboxysomes, whilst deletion of ccmK3 or ccmK4 resulted in cells with wild-type physiology and normal ultrastructure. However, a tandem deletion of ccmK3-4 resulted in cells with wild-type carboxysome structure, but physiologically deficient at low CO(2) conditions. These results revealed the minimum structural determinants of the outer shell of β-carboxysomes from this strain: CcmK2, CcmO and CcmL. An accessory set of proteins was required to refine the function of the pre-existing shell: CcmK3 and CcmK4. These data suggested a model for the facet structure of β-carboxysomes with CcmL forming the vertices, CcmK2 forming the bulk facet, and CcmO, a "zipper protein," interfacing the edges of carboxysome facets.The work was supported by an Australian National University PhD scholarship and partial funding from an Australian Research Council grant to GDP and MRB

Functions, Compositions, and Evolution of the Two Types of Carboxysomes: Polyhedral Microcompartments That Facilitate CO 2 Fixation in Cyanobacteria and Some Proteobacteria

Cyanobacteria are the globally dominant photoautotrophic lineage. Their success is dependent on a set of adaptations collectively termed the CO 2-concentrating mechanism (CCM). The purpose of the CCM is to support effective COCO2 fixation by enhancing th

Perspectives on the Municipal Role in Effectuating Sustainable Industrial Park Development and Operations: The Hamilton, Ontario Case

Within the greater movement of sustainable development, industrial practices have been identified as a key area in which much improvement is both necessary and possible. The development and operation of industrial parks have become a focus of these efforts. The basic premise of this thesis is that a sustainable industrial park should function in an economically competitive manner that provides for human needs through market mechanisms while doing so in alliance with the local community, in congruence with the local ecosystem and within the carrying capacity of the planet. From a municipal planning and economic development perspective, this thesis focuses upon the development of a municipal strategy to effectuate sustainable industrial development and operations. Utilizing a blended theoretical approach incorporating general systems theory and planning theories, the proposed industrial park surrounding the Hamilton International Airport, in the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has been analyzed to develop a viable sustainability vision for the park, identify barriers to implementing and achieving that vision, and formulate a municipal strategy to promote and enable the pursuit and realization of that vision. It was found that there is an important role for the municipality to assume and numerous opportunities for concrete municipal action throughout the planning, development and operational stages of the industrial park. Upon reflection of the research process, the findings were extrapolated to garner wider applicability and relevance to other municipalities provincially, nationally, and internationally, as well as to the professional and academic community involved in industrial sustainability

Citation

Northumbria University has developed Northumbria Research Link (NRL) to enable users to access the University's research output. Copyright © and moral rights for items on NRL are retained by the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. Single copies of full items can be reproduced, displayed or performed, and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided the authors, title and full bibliographic details are given, as well as a hyperlink and/or URL to the original metadata page. The content must not be changed in any way. Full items must not be sold commercially in any format or medium without formal permission of the copyright holder. The full policy is available online: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/policies.html This document may differ from the final, published version of the research and has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies. To read and/or cite from the published version of the research, please visit the publisher's website (a subscription may be required.) Teaching staff knowledge, attributions and confidence Teaching staff knowledge, attributions and confidence in relation to working with children with an intellectual disability and challenging behaviour Accessible summary: We looked at how much teachers knew about helping children with a learning disability who had behaviour that was challenging in school. We found that: Some teachers knew very little about challenging behaviour and all the different ways to help children with this. Some teachers had beliefs about challenging behaviour that can be unhelpful We need to find ways to help teachers find out more about challenging behaviour and to think about it in different ways. One way to do this could be to give them training about it. Key words: teacher knowledge, attributions, confidence, challenging behaviour 2 Summary The present study examined Scottish teaching staff knowledge about the definition and management of challenging behaviour displayed by children with an intellectual disability. Knowledge levels were relatively low and participants were most likely to define challenging behaviour by function or topography. Teaching staff were largely unaware of positive programming strategies, suggesting that they may not be properly equipped to manage challenging behaviour effectively in the longer term. The teaching staff were found to hold attributions which research suggests are associated with reduced helping behaviour and increased anger. This indicates a continuing need to identify effective ways of promoting more accurate knowledge and positive attributions in teaching staff.

“Can It Read My Mind?” – What Do the Public and Experts Think of the Current (Mis)Uses of Neuroimaging?

Emerging applications of neuroimaging outside medicine and science have received intense public exposure through the media. Media misrepresentations can create a gulf between public and scientific understanding of the capabilities of neuroimaging and raise false expectations. To determine the extent of this effect and determine public opinions on acceptable uses and the need for regulation, we designed an electronic survey to obtain anonymous opinions from as wide a range of members of the public and neuroimaging experts as possible. The surveys ran from 1st June to 30 September 2010, asked 10 and 21 questions, respectively, about uses of neuroimaging outside traditional medical diagnosis, data storage, science communication and potential methods of regulation. We analysed the responses using descriptive statistics; 660 individuals responded to the public and 303 individuals responded to the expert survey. We found evidence of public skepticism about the use of neuroimaging for applications such as lie detection or to determine consumer preferences and considerable disquiet about use by employers or government and about how their data would be stored and used. While also somewhat skeptical about new applications of neuroimaging, experts grossly underestimated how often neuroimaging had been used as evidence in court. Although both the public and the experts rated highly the importance of a better informed public in limiting the inappropriate uses to which neuroimaging might be put, opinions differed on the need for, and mechanism of, actual regulation. Neuroscientists recognized the risks of inaccurate reporting of neuroimaging capabilities in the media but showed little motivation to engage with the public. The present study also emphasizes the need for better frameworks for scientific engagement with media and public education

Carboxysome encapsulation of the CO₂-fixing enzyme Rubisco in tobacco chloroplasts

A long-term strategy to enhance global crop photosynthesis and yield involves the introduction of cyanobacterial CO2-concentrating mechanisms (CCMs) into plant chloroplasts. Cyanobacterial CCMs enable relatively rapid CO2 fixation by elevating intracellular inorganic carbon as bicarbonate, then concentrating it as CO2 around the enzyme Rubisco in specialized protein micro-compartments called carboxysomes. To date, chloroplastic expression of carboxysomes has been elusive, requiring coordinated expression of almost a dozen proteins. Here we successfully produce simplified carboxysomes, isometric with those of the source organism Cyanobium, within tobacco chloroplasts. We replace the endogenous Rubisco large subunit gene with cyanobacterial Form-1A Rubisco large and small subunit genes, along with genes for two key α-carboxysome structural proteins. This minimal gene set produces carboxysomes, which encapsulate the introduced Rubisco and enable autotrophic growth at elevated CO2. This result demonstrates the formation of α-carboxysomes from a reduced gene set, informing the step-wise construction of fully functional α-carboxysomes in chloroplasts