MFL homework in Year 9 French: rising to the challenge

The objectives of this article are, first, to describe a collaborative project between teacher educators and a foreign languages (FL) department in a specialist language college and, second, to evaluate its success. The project focuses on Year 9 pupils across the ability range (in four groups) and involves staff in both institutions working together to plan and produce stimulating homework tasks in French, integrated into the spring term scheme of work. Pupils' work and progress were evaluated and their views sought as well as those of participating staff. A classroom-based action research approach was adopted for the project. The article concludes with outcomes, which include recommendations and ideas to increase the effectiveness of FL homework

Wheat seed embryo excision enables the creation of axenic seedlings and Koch’s postulates testing of putative bacterial endophytes

Early establishment of endophytes can play a role in pathogen suppression and improve seedling development. One route for establishment of endophytes in seedlings is transmission of bacteria from the parent plant to the seedling via the seed. In wheat seeds, it is not clear whether this transmission route exists, and the identities and location of bacteria within wheat seeds are unknown. We identified bacteria in the wheat (Triticum aestivum) cv. Hereward seed environment using embryo excision to determine the location of the bacterial load. Axenic wheat seedlings obtained with this method were subsequently used to screen a putative endophyte bacterial isolate library for endophytic competency. This absence of bacteria recovered from seeds indicated low bacterial abundance and/or the presence of inhibitors. Diversity of readily culturable bacteria in seeds was low with 8 genera identified, dominated by Erwinia and Paenibacillus. We propose that anatomical restrictions in wheat limit embryo associated vertical transmission, and that bacterial load is carried in the seed coat, crease tissue and endosperm. This finding facilitates the creation of axenic wheat plants to test competency of putative endophytes and also provides a platform for endophyte competition, plant growth, and gene expression studies without an indigenous bacterial background

A quantitative analysis of complexity of human pathogen-specific CD4 T cell responses in healthy M. tuberculosis infected South Africans

Author Summary: Human pathogen-specific immune responses are tremendously complex and the techniques to study them ever expanding. There is an urgent need for a quantitative analysis and better understanding of pathogen-specific immune responses. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is one of the leading causes of mortality due to an infectious agent worldwide. Here, we were able to quantify the Mtb-specific response in healthy individuals with Mtb infection from South Africa. The response is highly diverse and 66 epitopes are required to capture 80% of the total reactivity. Our study also show that the majority of the identified epitopes are restricted by multiple HLA alleles. Thus, technical advances are required to capture and characterize the complete pathogen-specific response. This study demonstrates further that the approach combining identified epitopes into "megapools" allows capturing a large fraction of the total reactivity. This suggests that this technique is generally applicable to the characterization of immunity to other complex pathogens. Together, our data provide for the first time a quantitative analysis of the complex pathogen-specific T cell response and provide a new understanding of human infections in a natural infection setting

The association between treatment adherence to nicotine patches and smoking cessation in pregnancy: a secondary analysis of a randomised controlled trial

IntroductionIn non-pregnant ‘quitters’, adherence to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) increases smoking cessation. We investigated relationships between adherence to placebo or NRT patches and cessation in pregnancy, including an assessment of reverse causation and whether any adherence: cessation relationship is moderated when using nicotine or placebo patches. MethodsUsing data from 1050 pregnant trial participants, regression models investigated associations between maternal characteristics, adherence and smoking cessation. ResultsAdherence during the first month was associated with lower baseline cotinine concentrations (beta -0.08, 95%CI -0.15 to -0.01) and randomisation to NRT (beta 2.59, 95%CI 1.50 to 3.68). Adherence during both treatment months was associated with being randomised to NRT (beta 0.51, 95%CI 0.29 to 0.72) and inversely associated with higher nicotine dependence. Adherence with either NRT or placebo was associated with cessation at one month (OR 1.11, 95%CI 1.08 to 1.13) and delivery (OR 1.06, 95%CI 1.03 to 1.09), but no such association was observed in the subgroup where reverse causation was not possible. Amongst all women, greater adherence to nicotine patches was associated with increased cessation (OR 2.47, 95%CI 1.32 to 4.63) but greater adherence to placebo was not (OR 0.98, 95%CI: 0.44 to 2.18). ConclusionWomen who were more adherent to NRT were more likely to achieve abstinence; more nicotine dependent women probably showed lower adherence to NRT because they relapsed to smoking more quickly. The interaction between nicotine-containing patches and adherence for cessation suggests that the association between adherence with nicotine patches and cessation may be partly causal

Developing CLIL training for modern languages teacher trainees

The development of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) could be one way forward in motivating pupils to expand their foreign language learning in England. Following the removal of the requirement for all pupils to learn a foreign language at key stage 4 (ages 14-16) there has been a decline in the take-up of languages after the age of 14. Concurrently, the entitlement to learn a foreign language throughout key stage 2 (ages 7-11) has led to diversity of pupils’ experience before starting at secondary school at age 11. CLIL could be one solution to enthuse pupils through their first stage at secondary school. This paper outlines a collaborative action research project to integrate a training module in CLIL for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) teacher trainees as part of their Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) programme at the University of Warwick with the support of Tile Hill Wood School and Language College. Tile Hill Wood School has a national reputation for innovative work in CLIL; it was one of the 2006 winners of the European Award for Languages for its CLIL work and in 2007 was a CILT (English National Centre for Teaching of Languages) 14-19 network for immersion teaching. The research reports on trainees’ evaluations of their teaching of CLIL lessons in a range of secondary schools, and the impact of the CLIL approach on learners, their own teaching, and the school departments in which they were teaching. It also reports on the challenges trainees encountered in using this approach. The project culminated in a successful Association for Language Learning showcase event in June 2008 where trainees presented their work and considered the impact on learners and schools